Here's another reason to covet Google Glass: it can serve as your personal tour guide.
One of the early so-called Glassware apps to arrive on on the search giant's high-tech eyewear, Field Trip becomes available today to the 10,000 or so Google's Glass Explorers. Those early adopters paid $1,500 to get the first pairs off the production line; final consumer models are expected in 2014.
Available for free as an Android app for a year -- and for Apple iOS devices for about six months -- Field Trip delivers location-based information about neighborhoods, cities and countries based on your interests. However, the app's full potential is unleashed on Glass, says John Hanke, vice president of Niantic Labs, which is a startup firm within Google.
Viewing information through Glass, he says, "is less distracting because it keeps your eyes free, which is the whole idea, that you can actually see the thing in front of you."
Field Trip uses GPS information to provide you facts about your environment, whether it's interesting tourist spots, landmarks and historic sites or -- for a local -- new restaurants and night clubs. As you make your way, say along a city street, small "card" of information marking important sites pop up on Glass.
A photo showing the 'Field Trip' app providing location-based information on Google Glass.(Photo: Niantic Labs)
If you are interested, you can look up and say, "OK, Glass, read aloud," and the eyewear will relate the information about the landmark using its built-in speaker on the frame. Apps on a smartphone are useful, "but tend to take you away from your physical environment," he says. "(Field Trip) really showcases Glass as the way to get information."
Tourists would benefit because Field Trip's entries are "popping up as I'm walking up to the site," Hanke says. "It's not like you have to pull the guide book out of your backpack and fumble through it and block traffic on sidewalk while you are trying to find the right page."
MOBILE PAYMENTS: No cash registers, just Google Glass
Niantic has a team of researchers that scour the web for sites that provide interesting historical information and other hyper-local data. Overall, Field Trip uses about 130 sources including local history book company Arcadia Publishing, history enthusiast site Historvius and lifestyle site
One of the early so-called Glassware apps to arrive on on the search giant's high-tech eyewear, Field Trip becomes available today to the 10,000 or so Google's Glass Explorers. Those early adopters paid $1,500 to get the first pairs off the production line; final consumer models are expected in 2014.
Available for free as an Android app for a year -- and for Apple iOS devices for about six months -- Field Trip delivers location-based information about neighborhoods, cities and countries based on your interests. However, the app's full potential is unleashed on Glass, says John Hanke, vice president of Niantic Labs, which is a startup firm within Google.
Viewing information through Glass, he says, "is less distracting because it keeps your eyes free, which is the whole idea, that you can actually see the thing in front of you."
Field Trip uses GPS information to provide you facts about your environment, whether it's interesting tourist spots, landmarks and historic sites or -- for a local -- new restaurants and night clubs. As you make your way, say along a city street, small "card" of information marking important sites pop up on Glass.
If you are interested, you can look up and say, "OK, Glass, read aloud," and the eyewear will relate the information about the landmark using its built-in speaker on the frame. Apps on a smartphone are useful, "but tend to take you away from your physical environment," he says. "(Field Trip) really showcases Glass as the way to get information."
Tourists would benefit because Field Trip's entries are "popping up as I'm walking up to the site," Hanke says. "It's not like you have to pull the guide book out of your backpack and fumble through it and block traffic on sidewalk while you are trying to find the right page."
MOBILE PAYMENTS: No cash registers, just Google Glass
Niantic has a team of researchers that scour the web for sites that provide interesting historical information and other hyper-local data. Overall, Field Trip uses about 130 sources including local history book company Arcadia Publishing, history enthusiast site Historvius and lifestyle site