A Chrome extension called FacePause lets users pause YouTube videos just by looking away from the screen.
The extension works by using a computer’s webcam and Google’s face detection application programming language (API). The face detection API has been around for developers to take advantage of since Chrome version 56. It allows apps to know when a user is looking at the screen and when they’re looking away.
The extension was developed by a developer named Mattias Hemmingsson according to his GitHub profile. He tells users on the FacePause’s GitHub page that he see this extension as more of an experiment rather than a useful plugin.
To start using this tool users have to add the Chrome extension to their browser and then enable an experimental Chrome flag. According to Hemmingsson, the flag can be enabled here or copy and paste ‘chrome://flags/#enable-experimental-web-platform-features’ into your search bar.
The last thing that the developer notes is that this feature doesn’t work very well in dark settings.
