Google Is Working On “Human Presence Detection” For Chromebooks
Google is testing new hardware for its next-in-line Chromebooks, which could bring Human Presence Detection to them. Over the years, Chromebooks have come a long way. Even now, Google is making sure to keep pushing the Chromebooks to attain the newest hardware.
The tech giant is working on a “Human Presence Sensor” (HPS) for the upcoming Chromebooks. Likewise, Human Presence Detection could also be paired with Face Unlock, which will bring about major changes to how the world uses Chromebooks.
Human Presence Detection & Face Unlock
As discovered by 9to5Google, recent commits on the Chromium Gerrit reveal that a Human Presence Sensor is definitely under development. For now, only Windows laptops offer Human Presence Detection. Hence, the addition of the same to Chromebooks will diversify the technology.
On some Windows machines, HPS and Face Unlock go hand-in-hand; the HPS senses if the user is around and turns the computer on, and further Face Unlock (or Windows Hello) instantly makes use of the user’s face to unlock the system. The pair are quite convenient for unlocking machines in day-to-day usage.
But that isn’t all Chromium Gerrit reveals. Some UI changes will accompany the new hardware addition. For instance, an eye-shaped icon will appear in the system tray when the sensor detects human presence. It’s quite similar to what Windows Hello does when it blinks the eye-shaped icon while detecting a face. While this is only the tip of the iceberg, we could see many more use cases for the Human Presence Sensor.
Furthermore, 9to5Google also indicated that Google tested the new feature on devices with codenames Brya and Zork. Subsequently, Zork is the codename used for AMD-powered Chromebooks. However, the Bryan codename refers to Chromebooks featuring Intel’s 12th-generation Alder Lake CPUs.
In conclusion, HPS paired with Face Unlock might just be coming to future Chromebooks shortly. The addition of HPS will only make things convenient for the users. As for the release, it is not certain when the new Chromebooks with HPS will show up.
