Tim Cook said in recent months that he was so excited about Augmented Reality that he wanted ‘to yell out and scream.’
He named furniture buying as an example of something that can be completely changed by the use of AR.
“We’ve talked to Ikea, and they have 3D images of their furniture line. You’re talking about changing the whole experience of how you shop for, in this case, furniture and other objects that you can place around the home”.
Ikea’s digital transformation manager has been working on the first AR app of its kind and said that IKEA was going all-in on the AR technology experience.
“This will be the first augmented reality app that allows you to make reliable buying decision. When we launch new products, they will come first in the AR app”.
The plan is that customers will take photos in their own homes, and to use the app to position realistic renders of IKEA furniture directly into their environment. Customers would be able to see what a sofa would look like in a living-room. For example, placing it in the exact position will allow customers to truly see what the item will look like amongst their decor, but will also show how it spacially works in the area.
IKEA says that Apple’s AR technology is so good that the positioning of products will be ‘millimeter precise,’ with sizes and lighting completely accurate. It’s expecting to have 5-600 products available at the time they launch. The company will have a head-start on other companies and it’s been using photo-realistic renders instead of product photos in its existing catalog for some time now. It will be able to drop these same 3D models into the AR app.
Initially this will be used in-store. Ideally IKEA aims to have customers place a sofa in your home using the app, and then click it in the shopping cart on the e-commerce site.
IKEA is aiming to launch when IOS 11 is released.
