Google is coming out with several accessibility features to make it even easier for people to use their Android smartphones. For example, it will soon be possible to navigate and talk hands-free using emojis.
Although the accessibility features are mainly meant to help people with physical disabilities, they are also useful for people who don’t have them. It gives you just a few more options. For example, you will soon be able to control Android via facial movement and talk via an Emoji.
Google is introducing several new accessibility features for Android and ChromeOS. One of the most important additions is Project Gameface on Android.
Project Gameface comes to Android: controlling phone by face gestures
Project Gameface makes it possible to control your Android phone based on head movements and facial gestures. Useful for people who cannot speak or have paralysis.
Until now, this program was used in helping you play games, but now it’s coming to Android as well. So you can assign certain functions to a movement with your head, a kind of homemade emoji.
Looking to the left, for example, can be set to select an item on the screen. Raising an eyebrow can make you go back a page, and an open mouth can bring you back to the home screen.
It is even possible to set how sensitive the Android software should be to recognize a gesture. For example, a slightly open mouth can mean something different than a wide-open mouth.
Talking via emoji
It will also be possible for Android users to talk through an emoji. They control these via eye movements.
With an eye movement, it is possible to select an emoji, to which the linked phrase is spoken by your Android smartphone. Look to Speak, as the feature is called, is now available. It works similar to Project Gameface, with eye movements to select anything.
(Image: Google)
The new Lookout app
Google also announced other accessibility features: such as the Lookout app for Android. This allows blind and visually impaired people to find objects in the real world. It tells the user where tables are in a restaurant or where a certain door to the restrooms is. It is still in beta, so the software may still have some bugs here and there.
With better and new accessibility features, people with disabilities can become a lot more independent and less dependent on others. Something that is obviously incredibly nice, because it gives freedom back to their lives.
