New Android Phone Features Add Facial Gesturing

New Android features that began rolling out this week include accessibility functions that allow users to control smartphone functions with facial gestures, blogged Google Thursday. Camera Switches, within the Android Accessibility Suite, turns a phone’s front-facing camera into a switch, replacing a keyboard, mouse or touch as an input option, said Angana Ghosh, product lead-Gboard. With the Project Activate app, phone owners can use facial gestures and eye movements to activate preset actions such as speaking a short phrase, playing brief audio or sending a text, she said. In the update, the Lookout app gets handwriting recognition to help people with limited vision or blindness: In documents mode, using the phone’s camera, Lookout reads out handwritten and printed text for Latin-based languages, she said. Remote control features are being added to Android phones, allowing Android TV or Google TV users to power on the TV, navigate through recommendations and start a show; users can also type in passwords from the phone’s keyboard for passwords, movie names or search terms, Ghosh said. Android Auto users will be able to launch and listen to music, news and podcasts with personalized recommendations from Google Assistant; they can also play games from GameSnacks while parked, she said.