Google’s ‘Project Gameface’ can now bring facial gesture controls to Android

Ben Schoon | May 15 2024 - 3:05 pm PT

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.