Ikea makes ar app that shows a preview of a product in your own living room

Ikea is working with Apple on an app that offers customers of the furniture chain via augmented reality the possibility to see how an Ikea product looks in their own living room.

Through the app, customers are able to project virtual Ikea products as a 3d model in their virtual living room. To this end, users of the app have to take pictures of their living room, after which the app can place a catalog of Ikea products via ar in the virtual living room. This is what Ikea digital transformation manager Michael Valdsgaard said on a Swedish website.

According to Valdsgaard, the app allows users to place Ikea products with precision down to a millimeter. In addition, the size of the products can be adjusted and the lighting of the products has also been considered. Ultimately, customers should also be able to purchase the products directly with the app; Valdsgaard does not yet know whether this option will also be possible once the app comes out.

Valdsgaard hopes that the app can be released in the fall during the release of iOS 11. Initially, the app will contain about 500 to 600 Ikea products. New products will all become available in the app. It is unclear whether the app will also be available for Android.

Ikea already has a catalog app that can similarly place virtual products about what the smartphone’s camera is pointing at. The new app should perform the placement of the virtual products with more precision and provide a more convincing ar experience.

In 2016, Ikea already released an app on Steam that is intended to view kitchens in virtual reality with the HTC Vive headset. The software is developed by the French company Allegorithmic and uses Unreal Engine 4.