Controlling Your Mac With Head Movements

Starting with macOS Catalina 10.15.4 you can use Accessibility to control your cursor with your head, and even click and drag with facial expressions. Even if you don't need this functionality, it can be useful as a temporary way to control your Mac is some situations, or just a way to give your hands a rest.

Comments: 5 Responses to “Controlling Your Mac With Head Movements”

    Douglas Brace
    4 years ago

    Gary, I work in higher education as an educational technologist. Do you know if these features require a specific quality of webcam or are they only compatible with the webcam that Apple puts in its computers? Also, and I looked in iOS, do you know if these features are available Apple's mobile devices? Thank you!

    4 years ago

    Douglas: I'm doing this using my unconventional webcam. The webcams that come with Macs are actually pretty low-quality (720p) so I assume any decent 720 or 1080 one will work. But just try it with what you have and see. This is a Mac feature, it wouldn't make much sense on a mobile device now, since it controls the cursor, and there isn't a cursor on mobile devices. But that is also changing, so maybe eventually this will be there too.

    Ted G. Freitas
    4 years ago

    Gary, great tip! Thanks for always showing us things that are hidden under the hood!

    Heidi Adams
    3 years ago

    Does this"head movement" program allow you control a live Keynote show? Live to a projected screen?

    3 years ago

    Heidi: it isn't a program. It is built into the operating system. I suppose you could control a presentation with it, but I'm not sure why you would unless that was your only way.

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