Chirp!

Before Chirp!

Susan, Frank and the rest of the group meet in the parking lot of the local nature preserve. They say their hellos and start walking. As the path gets steeper, Frank’s knee starts to hurt and he falls behind the rest of the group. About ten minutes into the walk he has lost sight of the rest of the group.

In the meantime, Susan and the rest of the group have decided to turn back. Susan’s not sure if she’s gone far enough to meet her goal for the walk, but the consensus of the group is that they don’t want to go any farther. They turn around and head back to the parking lot, where they have to wait for Frank to catch up.

With Chirp!

Susan, Frank and the rest of the group meet in the parking lot of the local nature preserve. They say their hellos and turn on Chirp on their iPhones. They start walking and discussing what birds they hope to see that day. As the path gets steeper, Frank’s knee starts to hurt and he falls behind the rest of the group.

Farther up the path, Susan sees a bird. She takes out her phone to take a picture of it. As she takes the picture, a message is automatically sent to Frank, who Chirp has found to be outside of Susan’s immediate vicinity. Frank gets an alert on his phone telling him that Susan has found a bird. Frank wants to catch up to the group so that they get more points for the bird. He sends a message to Susan asking her to wait for him, and sets off at a revitalized pace.

Susan uses Chirp to identify the bird she took a picture of. As she and the rest of the group fill in the attributes that Chirp was not able to recognize on its own from the iPhone sensors and picture analysis, she sees that Frank has asked her to wait for them. She agrees to wait, and continues figuring out what kind of bird she saw. Frank catches up just as she discovers what kind of bird it is. The whole group gets points for her picture. The group sets off again, excited to see what other birds they will find.