A phone that needs no fingers

Next Steps

Sesame is working on a tablet version and a downloadable app that will work with other phones. “We were drawn to Sesame first and foremost because of the quality and ease of use of its technology,” says Google.org portfolio manager Andrew Dunckelman. Ruzena Bajcsy, a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California at Berkeley, says the technology has promise, but he wants to see it tested more thoroughly with a wider audience.

Origin In 2011, after making a mobile game that uses head gestures, Ben-Dov got a call from Giora Livne—a quadriplegic and his future cofounder—asking for help designing a smartphone he could use. Cost The company bundles its software with a Google...

Setup Initially, a caregiver places the phone in front of the user and turns it on. After that, saying, “Open Sesame” activates the phone’s front camera to follow the person’s head movements.