[akovaski]

You can do this (in Linux, at least. Mobile devices like Android as well.) if the USB port of the peripheral side is a USB OTG port. I've only seen USB OTG ports as USB-B (standard and micro) or USB-C.

Edit: I didn't notice before, but USB OTG is on the front page right now https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42585167

[nsteel]

I think there was a RPi Zero project doing the round some years back that made use of this.