Use facial gestures & head movements to control your Chromebook with Face control

Important:

• The camera should work at all times while you use Face control.
  • Make sure the camera shutter or cover on your Chromebook is open.
  • To ensure accuracy, keep the camera on while you use Face control.
  • To ensure proper functionality of Face control, make sure the camera isn’t blocked and works correctly.
  • To accurately detect facial gestures and head movements, make sure your workspace has adequate lighting.
  • Face control respects camera policies.
• When you first turn on Face control, a confirmation dialog appears.
  • If you cancel, Face control won’t turn on.
  • If you confirm, Face control is turned on and the downloadable content that contains the machine learning model needed to run Face control starts to download.
  • If the download fails, Face control is turned off and a notification appears.
  • If the download succeeds, a notification appears and Face control starts with the default settings.
  • No personal data is collected by the model or the Face control feature.
• You can use head movements to control the cursor and can also assign facial gestures to actions on your Chromebook.
• To improve your overall hands-free experience on your Chromebook, this feature works well with:
  • Dictation
  • Automatic clicks
  • Sticky keys
  • Switch Access
  • On-screen keyboard

What you need

To use Face control, your Chromebook needs to have a version of M132 or higher.

• Webcam access: The system needs permission to access your Chromebook’s webcam to capture facial data.
• First time confirmation dialog: A dialog box should appear to get your consent.
• Internet Access: A stable internet connection is required to download the necessary machine learning model. A notification in the notification center confirms the successful download.

Tips:

• You can use Face control as a guest. This allows access without saving your preferences, such as cursor speed.
• You can adjust Face control options through Quick settings. Learn how to turn on Chromebook accessibility features.

Set up Face control

1. On your computer, at the bottom right, select the time.
   • Or, you can press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings Accessibility Cursor and touchpad.
3. To navigate to the Face control settings subpage, select Face control.
4. Turn on Face control.

Turn on cursor control

Important: By default, Cursor control is turned on.

Use head movements to control the mouse cursor. This hands-free approach helps users with limited mobility or repetitive strain injuries navigate and interact with digital content seamlessly.

1. On your computer, at the bottom right, select the time.
   • Or, you can press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings Accessibility Cursor and touchpad.
3. Select Face control.
4. Turn on Face control.
5. On the “Cursor settings” card, turn on Use head movements to control the mouse cursor.
   • This is on by default.

Customize cursor control settings

You can adjust the cursor speed, stability, and acceleration.

Adjust cursor speed

1. On the “Cursor settings” card, turn on Use head movements to control the mouse cursor.
2. Select Face control Cursor Speed.
3. Next to “Cursor speed,” drag the slider right or left, from “Slow” to “Fast.”

Tips:

• Cursor direction speed: To adjust the cursor speed in each direction, turn on Adjust speed separately for each direction. You can adjust the “Up,” “Down,” “Left,” and “Right” directions from “Slow” to “Fast.”
• Cursor stability: You can keep the cursor stable even if you have slight head movements. This requires more effort to move the cursor. To adjust cursor stability, next to “Cursor stability,” drag the slider left or right, from “Responsive” to “Stable.”
• Cursor acceleration: You can fling your head quickly in a direction to move the cursor further without moving your head excessively by adjusting the acceleration setting. This allows a greater range of cursor movement with less physical head movement. Turn on Cursor acceleration.
• Reset to default setting: To reset all cursor settings to their defaults, in the “Cursor settings” card, select Reset.

Assign face gestures for Face control

When you log in to your Chromebook, two gestures are mapped to actions by default:

• Smile is mapped to Left-click.
• Open your mouth wide is mapped to Scroll.

Step 1: Open Face control settings

1. On your computer, at the bottom right, select the time.
   • Or, you can press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings Accessibility Cursor and touchpad.
3. Select Face control.

Step 2: Add Face control actions

1. Scroll to the "Actions settings” card.
2. Turn on Use facial gestures to perform actions.
   • This is on by default.
3. Select + Add action.
4. From the “Add an action” dialog box, you can assign gestures to perform:
   • Reset cursor to center
   • Left-click the mouse
   • Double-click the mouse
   • Triple-click the mouse
   • Right-click the mouse
   • Drag and drop
   • Start or stop dictation
   • Take a screenshot
   • Open overview of windows
   • Play or pause media
   • Scroll
     • Covers all directions
   • Show or hide on-screen keyboard
   • Pause or resume Face control
5. Select an action Next.
6. Use recognized, predefined facial gestures for the selected action:
   • Raise eyebrows
   • Lower eyebrows
   • Squint left eye
   • Squint right eye
   • Blink both eyes
   • Look down
   • Look left
   • Look right
   • Look up
   • Shift jaw left
   • Open your mouth wide
   • Shift jaw right
   • Make a circle with your lips
   • Move your mouth left
   • Pucker by squeezing lips together
   • Move your mouth right
   • Smile
   • Show all of your teeth

Tips:

• To add additional gestures to an action, go through the dialog again.
• Multiple gestures can be assigned to the same action, like Squint left eye and Squint right eye can both be assigned to left-click.
• Multiple actions can’t be assigned to the same gesture, like Squint left eye can’t perform both a left and a right-click.
• To remove a mapping, select Close .
• To change the gesture mapped to an action, remove the undesired mapping, select Close . To remap a gesture to the action, repeat the mapping process.

Step 3: Adjust & save the new gesture

1. Check and adjust the gesture threshold.
   • Perform the gesture: The window changes color if it's detected at the current threshold.
   • Adjust the slider for more or less sensitivity: The threshold should be low enough for comfort but high enough to prevent accidental detection.
     • If you decrease the threshold, you can use a subtle movement.
     • If you increase the threshold, you need a more exaggerated movement.
2. To confirm your new Face control action, select Save.
3. Under “Actions,” you’ll find a row with your configured action and a chip that displays the assigned gesture.

Tips:

• When you change the gesture sensitivity, it saves the sensitivity for that gesture for any future mappings.
• There are 2 preset actions: Left-click and Scroll. To delete the default actions, next to the action you want to delete, select Close .
• If you select a gesture that’s already assigned to an action, a warning appears. When you assign an existing gesture to a new action, the gesture is removed from its previous action.
• If a gesture is unassigned from an action, that action row is still in the settings. There’s now a chip that says "Assign a gesture." in the settings. You can select that chip to assign a new gesture to that action.
• If you select a gesture that could conflict with one you've already set, a warning appears. For example, if you select "Shift jaw left" after you set "Open your mouth wide," it triggers a warning, as it may accidentally activate the "Open your mouth wide" gesture.

Toggle-type actions

Some of the Face control actions require you to toggle into an action mode by performing the assigned facial gesture. You can interact with the computer as needed, then perform the assigned facial gesture again to toggle out of the action mode. When you’re in an action mode, all other facial gestures are ignored until you exit the action mode to avoid accidentally triggering other actions.

Drag & drop

You can use drag and drop to perform the same function as when you click and hold down the left mouse button. This is the same as when you move your desktop windows or highlight text.

To use drag and drop:

1. Perform the facial gesture to pick up the item.
   • At the top of the screen, the “Face control indicator” indicates that your device is in the process of a drag and drop
2. Move your cursor to the desired location either through Face control or other input system like your mouse or touchpad.
3. Perform the facial gesture to drop the item.

Start or stop dictation

To input text into text fields with your voice, you can use dictation.

To use dictation:

1. Click on a text field.
2. Perform the assigned facial gesture.
   • A bubble will appear that indicates that dictation is on and waiting for input.
3. Speak your desired text input.
4. Perform the facial gesture again to stop.

Scroll mode

To scroll on webpages and desktop applications, you can use scroll mode.

To use scroll mode:

1. Hover the mouse over the content you want to scroll.
2. Perform the assigned facial gesture to enter scroll mode.
   • At the top of the screen, the “Face control indicator” indicates that your device is in scroll mode.
3. To scroll in your desired direction, tilt your head up and down, and left and right.
4. To exit the scroll mode, perform the facial gesture again.

Pause or resume Face control

You can pause Face control to freely move your face without triggering actions:

1. Perform the assigned facial gesture.
   • At the top of the screen, the “Face control indicator” indicates that Face control is paused.
2. To resume Face control, perform the facial gesture again.

Set custom key combination

Step 1: Open Face control settings

1. On your computer, at the bottom right, select the time.
   • Or, you can press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings Accessibility Cursor and touchpad.
3. Select Face control.

Step 2: Create your custom key combination

1. Scroll to the "Actions settings” card.
2. On the bottom, select + Add action.
3. On the “Add an Action” page, from the bottom of the actions list, select Create a custom key combination Next.
4. On the “Create a custom key combination” page, use a physical keyboard to input your key combination.
   • To change your desired key combination after input, select Change. You can continue to make changes on this page until you’re ready to proceed.
   • One example of a key combination input would be, Copy: Ctrl + C.
   • Once you have set your desired key combination, select Next.
5. On the next page, select a predefined facial gesture Next.
   • Raise eyebrows
   • Lower eyebrows
   • Squint left eye
   • Squint right eye
   • Blink both eyes
   • Look down
   • Look left
   • Look right
   • Look up
   • Shift jaw left
   • Open your mouth wide
   • Shift jaw right
   • Make a circle with your lips
   • Move your mouth left
   • Pucker by squeezing lips together
   • Move your mouth right
   • Smile
   • Show all of your teeth

Tips:

• To add additional gestures to an action, go through the dialog again.
• Multiple gestures can be assigned to the same action, like Squint left eye and Squint right eye can both be assigned to left-click.
• Multiple actions can’t be assigned to the same gesture, like Squint left eye can’t perform both a left and a right-click.
• To remove a mapping, select Close .
• To change the gesture mapped to an action, remove the undesired mapping, select Close . To remap a gesture to the action, repeat the mapping process.

Step 3: Adjust & save the new gesture

1. Set the gesture threshold.
   • Perform the gesture: The window changes color if it's detected at the current threshold.
   • Adjust the slider for more or less sensitivity: The threshold should be low enough for comfort but high enough to prevent accidental detection.
     • To increase or decrease the sensitivity, drag the sensitivity slider left or right.
     • If you decrease the threshold, you can use a subtle movement.
     • If you increase the threshold, you need a more exaggerated movement.
2. To confirm your new Face control action, select Save.
3. In the “Actions settings” card, you can find a row with your configured action and a chip that displays the assigned gesture.
   • Tip: When you change the gesture sensitivity, it saves the sensitivity for that gesture for any future mappings.

Edit face gesture sensitivities for Face control

To update the gesture sensitivity after saving the action or gesture mapping:

1. In the Actions card, select the chip for the gesture that you have set. A dialog will appear for you to change the gesture sensitivity.
   • To increase or decrease the sensitivity, drag the sensitivity slider left or right.
   • If you decrease the threshold, you can use a subtle movement.
2. If you increase the threshold, you need a more exaggerated movement.
3. To update the gesture sensitivity, select Save.

Related resources

• Type text with your voice
• Automatically click objects on your Chromebook
• Sticky keys
• Use Switch Access
• Use the On-screen keyboard