Internet entertainment service provider, Netflix is rolling out a new feature that allows you to control the iOS app using facial expressions.
At the recent Netflix’s Fall 2018 Hack Day held on Nov 7, the company unveiled and tested a mobile Netflix app feature that uses Apple’s Face ID to allow users to control the application using only eye and facial movements.
Without ever reverting back to finger-touch control, Eye Nav lets you navigate the application, browse through, and select titles with just your eyes – but be prepared because to pause or close a screen, you’ll have to stick out your tongue.
The feature was built using Apple’s ARKit, the technology used to bring the world animojis to increase app accessibility.
This new form of API could make Netflix easier to use for those with motor impairments: basically, the “hack” places a cursor where your eye is looking and if your view lingers on a particular point of the screen, the tech will understand this brief pause as a tap.
Features like this and the rest tested at Hack Day don’t always make it to the final product, but the event gives developers an opportunity to share and try out new ideas that may actually hit the digital shelves.
This season’s event also brought a feature called “Jump to Shark” to the movie “Sharknado.’ Instead of scrolling through the progress bar, with just the tap of one option, you’ll be sent right to the most exciting and graphic parts of the movie.
These features may never see the light of day again, or they could be the beginnings of new interface functioning that Netflix will bring to its platform in the near future. With accessibility being a key focus of the company, it’s likely that Eye Nav will make a debut in one form or another.
This feature is currently available in the United States and is yet to make its debut in South Africa.
Edited by Neo Sesinye
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