Google will allow you to management your Chromebook together with your face Leave a comment

Google is asserting quite a lot of classroom and accessibility-focused ChromeOS options in the present day, and one of many standouts is with the ability to management your pc together with your head and facial expressions. The characteristic — aimed toward these with motor impairments — was first introduced in early December, but it surely’s now rolling out to extra customers with appropriate Chromebooks (Google recommends 8GB of RAM or extra).

This isn’t Google’s first foray into the face-as-a-cursor house. It beforehand made an open-source AI accessibility device for Home windows video games referred to as Challenge Gameface, which was additionally introduced for Android. Right here’s a pattern video from Google of the tech in motion, demoed by software program engineer Amanda Lin Dietz who helped develop it.

Moreover, Google can also be teasing a boatload of latest Chromebooks for 2025, with over 20 new units in its normal Chromebook and Chromebook Plus strains coming this yr. That estimate could also be a little bit of a stretch, since Google appears to be counting the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus that launched again in October, but it surely does additionally rely the just-announced 14-inch Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 and extra to come back.

Together with laptops aimed toward educators and college students, Google’s obtained a brand new batch of classroom-focused ChromeOS options referred to as Class Instruments. These enable lecturers to have real-time management of their college students’ screens. As soon as a pairing code is shared, educators will have the ability to ship college students direct content material on their Chromebook screens, flip on reside captions or translations for them, remotely view their screens, and share a pupil’s work with the entire class.

Along with these collaborative instruments, Google Classroom can also be getting an integration with Figma’s FigJam, permitting lecturers to assign on-line whiteboards to college students for brainstorming and group work. Possibly the mix of FigJam with the instructor’s capability to eavesdrop on college students’ screens will reveal who’s actually doing all of the work for the group.