Yup. It's an Epiphone EZ-Bender. Doesn't have to be just on a "B" string, and you can adjust it for either a perfect half or a perfect full stop. If you've got a good touch, you could set it for full and then just train your hand to stop at half, but that's not really the idea. The idea is to be able to have a "brainless" bend that you can rely on. If you wanted to train your hand up, you're better off mastering various positions and slants instead.
On a guitar, if you set the bender for a full stop instead of half, you get a country-ish interval (dunno which) against the high E instead. The country-ish sound of either approach is familiar to people who have heard a particular country lead guitar sound (typically done on a Telecaster) that emulates pedal steel phrases. The idea with my build was to give me one or two "pedal steel" effects on the lap so that I can spoof pedal steel parts. In theory, the plan works and is successful as a design. However, mine's actually sitting there useless... I decided to learn C6 tuning instead of a more "accessible" open G or similar. The way the strings are set up in C6, the bender doesn't give me any immediately useful bends.
Once I get bored, I'll be building a different 8-string lap steel, which will become my C6 instrument, leaving me free to put a more suitable country tuning on this one.
The frets are not at ALL necessary. If you really wanted, you could take a Sharpie and draw your "frets." Like I say, I mainly did it because "hey, I wonder what seating frets feels like?" It had the side benefit of making it nice and visible and also gives the instrument an extra touch of class.
Greg