Control your Android phone without touching it with gestures to your face | technology

We have several ways to control the phone, such as typical ways by touching the screen or by voice. Well, now an extra step has been taken and with the arrival of Android 12, Camera Switches are integrated, a function where you can control the device without your hands, just with your facial gestures.

We are used to Screen use To communicate with the smartphone, as we have always done, although some They use gestures Instead of the three buttons in the lifetime.

There are also those who manage the device by voice using the virtual assistants at our disposal today such as Alexa and Google Assistant And for those who have Apple products, Siri.

But now Android terminal users will be able to enjoy another way, since the arrival of Android 12 The face can also be used to perform the same actions we have done so far.

Table of contents:

camera keys

The app in particular is camera keys And he’s inside Android 12 On the Android Accessibility Pack. There it can be activated and made to work with the gestures we make with the face.

the Gestures you can recognize From our faces: open the mouth, smile, raise the eyebrows, look to the left, look to the right and look up.

the Actions we can take These gestures are select, press and hold, next, previous, home, back, swipe back and forward, access notifications, access Android quick settings, overview, disable camera switches, toggle auto scan and reverse auto scan.

How can we activate the camera switches?

Fortunately, the new camera gesture system, despite running Android 12 as standard, can be installed on any Android smartphone running Android 6 or higher.

We only owe Download and install it from Google Play Store Implementation Android Accessibility Pack, which will add a series of new functionality in the accessibility of our operating system.

Once installed, we can configure Camera Switches or when they compile Camera Switches. We must do the following:

• let’s go to Settings From our station then we enter Accessibility.
• At that moment we must press Interaction Controls o en Installed ServicesDepending on your mobile phone.
• Now we will find Access via switch, the place where we should press.
• We activate the function By clicking on the corresponding button, which initially says disabled, but then must be placed, with prior permission, as enabled.

• Right after that, it shows us three options for the adapter type (USB, Bluetooth or Camera), with having to choose the one that says switch camera And then by clicking next.
• In addition to asking us for different permissions, the system will download additional information for the program.

Gesture settings

From here is the moment we will begin to create a file facial gestures This will help us control the smartphone with our face, since we have already activated the camera keys or, as they are called in Spanish (by the way, it sounds worse) the camera keys.

Continuing from where we left off in the previous point, let’s know the next steps we must take:

• At this moment he asks us if we want just a gesture, that is, search for things on Android with a simple movement of the face, or if we want to different facial gestures, The most recommended option of the two.
• Now it gives us three options as it is Linear search, row and column search, or group selection. The first is a one-to-one search, the second searches by rows or columns, while the last option assigns a color to each element, being us who must choose which one we want.
• Once you select the one you want (we chose search by row), you will see how it allows us to configure actions by gesture. The first thing he tells us is Set a gesture for Next.

• Then among all the options in the part below, we choose the one we want, for example, look right.
• Click next To continue to set the gestures.
• From here, he asks us to tell him which gestures we will do to select, pause, etc.

In any case, we can configure it in a different way if we enter SettingsThen we give up Interaction controls (installed services), then enter Easy access with interruptions and find where you say Settings, the place where we should press.

Inside here you can set or change the gestures again, you can customize the menu and even reset everything to your liking Referring to the search.

How do you know if it has been activated?

It is very easy to see if this gesture control system is activated, as it will appear at the top of the screen face icon Either red or blue

Color tells us whether it detects our face or not. That is, if it appears red, it means that the face is not well focused, as it appears blue at the moment when the face is in the exact place of action. The pause icon may also appear if the system is paused.

conclusion

While we were testing this method of controlling the phone, we liked it more than we initially expected, although we get the same feeling as the first time we used screen gestures, and undone the buttons.

I mean, everything looked so good, but It needs a period of adjustment Not everyone supplies it. There were many people who didn’t have the patience needed to go through this process, and unfortunately, they put the three typical Android buttons back on.

The same thing happens with the issue of facial gestures, as there will be times when we forget the gesture we have chosen for an action, and other times we accidentally look where we should not or raise our eyebrows in response to something we see … and the phone interprets it as having to do what we are commanded , etc.

That is why we must be very attentive and, above all, get used to this system, although what is certain is that It works very well, whether in detecting gestures or in tasks to be performed.

Could this system be the future of interaction with smartphones? Only time can answer this question.