After launching on Apple’s iPhone and Android devices, Field Trip is now available for Google Glass. The software is useful to find points of interest, historical information and businesses nearby. On phones it runs in the background and pops up this information when the app finds something of interest close by. On Glass, it does the same but doesn’t require you to be looking at or holding a smartphone.
To best understand Field Trip, a visual demonstration is ideal; here’s a video showing what it’s like on Google Glass:
Although I’ve seen a number of great apps for Google Glass lately, Field Trip may exemplify why Glass is an exciting development.
The idea behind the wearable display is to prevent technology from getting in the way as much as possible while still providing benefits. Think voice controlled web searches, commands to jot a thought in Evernote and the ability to take pictures with a wink. Field Trip is one of those services that’s very useful but only at specific times. So having the app pop up interesting hyper-local information on Google Glass when necessary strongly meets the goal of Glass.
Sure, not every mobile activity is ideal for a headset-mounted display. But any app that gets you contextually relevant information by itself, and not requiring you to hold or tap a device is a perfect candidate for Glass.
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