Accessible Tech Highlight: iPhone Built-In Eye Tracking
Get ready for your close-up, Mr. DeMille, because all iPhones made after 2020 have built-in eye tracking. Tucked away in the accessibility menu is the feature that enables quadriplegics to use their eyes to control their phones. While most people will never need this, it is a lifeline to those who do.
Eye tracking works by having the front camera follow your eyes and notice when you “dwell”, which means to hold your gaze steady. When you dwell on something, a timer will appear. Hold your gaze for the duration of the timer and you'll perform an action, such as tapping to open an app.
To get even more out of this feature, you can pair it with Assistive Touch. Assistive Touch lets you replace built-in gestures with custom ones or custom sounds. So you could ask Siri to turn on Assistive Touch, create a gesture that gets triggered by a sound, for example, an s-sound or a mouth pop. It’s a great option for people who have limited hand function. Try it out today!
