Accessibility is an ongoing effort with any and all digital products. At I/O 2024, Google has announced that Project Gameface will be added to Android to allow for users to control their device with head movements and facial gestures.
Google announced Project Gameface at I/O 2023 with a focus on letting users control a PC with head movements and facial gestures. Those movements would control the on-screen cursor and offer new ways of interacting with a computer.
Now, that’s coming to Android.
In a post, Google announced that Project Gameface is coming to Android with support for 52 unique facial gestures. These include things such as opening your mouth, raising an eyebrow, looking in a certain direction, and more. Each gesture can be assigned to a specific system action such as going home, back, opening the notification shade, opening the app drawer, and so on.
The system can also perform a “drag” gesture by letting the user look at one point on screen, performing a gesture, and then looking to the direction they wish to drag.
This requires no additional hardware, and is simply powered by the front-facing camera.
Google has made Gameface open-source on GitHub to allow developers to use the work to create experiences using it. At least for now, it won’t be a native Android feature.
More from Google I/O 2024:
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