Field Trip

Field Trip was a location-based mobile app developed by Niantic Labs for the Google Glass, Android, and iOS devices. The application was first released in September 2012 and utilized user location and various databases to provide information and recommendations about various points of interest in their surroundings. Overview Field Trip acted as a "virtual tour guide"–using the user's location to recommend nearby landmarks and various points of interest, providing information about them ranging from historical tidbits to restaurant reviews. Upon approaching such points of interest, in-app "cards" would pop up with information regarding the location. The application also allowed its users to customize the app's features, whether it to adjust the frequency of notifications or to prefer certain types of locations. The application used GPS and cellular signals to determine the user's location, although in some cases triangulation from radio towers and Wi-Fi emitters are used to conserve battery life. In order to obtain information regarding the landmarks and points of interest, the project's developers relied on external partners like Atlas Obscura, Thrillist, Scoutmob and Dezeen in addition to internal Google structures such as Zagat. In an August 2013 interview with CNN, Hanke mentioned that the application gathered information from 130 databases. Development Following the acquisition of his company Keyhole, John Hanke created Niantic Labs within Google as something resembling a startup within the latter's structure. Hanke wanted users to "explore the beautiful stuff around them." The application was developed with hardware like Google Glass in mind. Field Trip was the first application released by Niantic.