As technology has developed, so have the ways we interact with it. Instead of writing with a pen or using buttons to move around a screen, we use touch screens with multitouch technology and styluses with hovering capabilities. While these new input capabilities are useful to many people, some users require accessibility features. That’s where features like Guided Frame, Live Transcribe, and the new Chromebook Face control feature are essential. They allow users to interact with their devices equitably, removing barriers and ensuring access for everyone.

Face control for Chromebooks is an accessibility feature that allows users to control any Chromebook with facial gestures and head movements. It rolled out with ChromeOS version M132 and is accessible to all users with that software version or higher. Here’s how to set up and use the feature.

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What is Face control?

Face control allows Chromebook users to interact with their Chromebooks using facial gestures and head movements. It uses AI and your camera to create a 3D mesh of 478 points on your face to detect small facial and head movements in real time. This ultra-accurate mesh makes controlling your device accessible, easy, and low-effort.

There are some requirements for using Face control. Firstly, you need ChromeOS M132 or above, where the feature was introduced. The feature uses your device’s built-in webcam when it is active. Make sure your device has a camera shutter that is open and that your camera is unobstructed. Also, make sure the space where you use the feature has proper lighting so that your Chromebook can recognize facial and head movements.

A mockup of the face control feature on a Chromebook with symbols showing how it works

Source: Google

Face control needs to download the machine learning model for the feature the first time it is activated, so allow it to do so. You need an active internet connection to download the model. While using Face control, the feature respects all camera policies and doesn’t collect personal data with the feature or the corresponding AI model.

How to set up Face control

Before you can use Face control, you must enable it in your Chromebook’s Settings app.

  1. Open the Settings app on your Chromebook through the Chromebook Quick Settings menu or by tapping the gear icon in the Chromebook launcher.
  2. Go to Accessibility > Cursor and touchpad.

    A screenshot of the Chromebook accessibility menu with the "accessibility" and "cursor and touchpad" options highlighted with a red box

  3. Select Face control.

    A screenshot of the Chromebook settings app in the "cursor and touchpad" section with the "Face control" option highlighted

  4. Toggle the feature on.

If you can’t find this feature in the Settings, search for Face Unlock in the search box.

When the feature is toggled on, you can use your face and head to control your cursor.

How to use Face control

Face control provides numerous features to help you fine tune your face control experience. The Use head movements to control the mouse cursor option is always on as a part of Face control since, at a minimum, that’s what the feature does.

The settings for the Face control feature on a Chromebook

  • Speed: Allows you to adjust the speed of the cursor as you move your head back and forth and up and down. A sub-feature called Adjust speed separately for each direction allows you to set a different cursor speed for vertical and horizontal head movement.
  • Cursor stability: Determines how obvious of a head movement you must make for the cursor to move. The more stable the feature, the more severe of a head movement you need to make to move the cursor.
  • Cursor acceleration: Aligns faster head movements with a faster cursor speed.
  • Precision click: Slows down the cursor speed when you make a left-click facial gesture to make it easier to select something.
  • Actions: Gestures or movements you make to complete an activity. For instance, smiling with your teeth is the default action to left-click. There are default actions for left-clicking and scrolling, but you can add and customize additional actions to help you better interact with your device. Each action can have its sensitivity turned up or down to make it easier or harder to activate the action.

After you set up these features to your preference, toggle the feature on and navigate your Chromebook using your facial gestures and head movements.

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Accessibility matters

Technology should be accessible to people of all abilities. While the evolution of technology has led to more accessibility features, it’s great to see new features like Face control added. Face control makes Chromebooks easier to use and more accessible to more people. Android also has several built-in accessibility features that make phones and tablets easier to use and access for everyone.