Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Google Glass Field Trip App Now Has Voice Command

The Field Trip app for Google Glass was updated Tuesday with new voice commands and personalization features.

Google Glass Explorers can now activate the exploration and discovery app with a voice command and tailor the information they see to their interests.

Field Trip, which first came to Google Glass last summer, is essentially a virtual tour guide. As you walk around an area, the app surfaces cards about locations nearby. The app has partnered with hundreds of publishers to reveal information about thousands locations.

With the latest update, users can now activate Field Trip by saying “Okay Glass, Explore Nearby.” The app also now allows users to personalize the cards that appear based on categories that interest them, including architecture, art, history, food and cool stuff.

If you are interested in art, for example, you may get a card alerting you that you are near the subject of a well-known painting.

Field Trip was the first project of Google's Niantic Labs team, who also developed Ingress, the augmented reality game.

Leif Wilden, one of Niantic's engineers who developed the Glass app said the team is already looking ahead to consider how Field Trip could be integrated into other wearable devices like smartwatches.

"The wearable devices like glass and the watch that's going to be coming out soon, they work really well with field trip," he told. "When we started Field Trip there was no Glass, this is something we're really excited about."

Field Trip is available for iOS, Android and Google Glass.