Introduction to IKEA Place
The Swedish home goods giant IKEA has been a trailblazer on the subject of applying latest technology to enhance its products and overall retail experience. Today, it’s taking the most recent step into the longer term of shopping with the launch of IKEA Place, certainly one of the primary wave of augmented reality apps getting released to work with Apple’s latest ARKit technology and iOS 11.
How IKEA Place Works
Just seven weeks within the making, yet kicking off with a catalog of two,000 items — all of IKEA’s sofas, armchairs, footstools, coffee tables, and plenty of storage solutions — IKEA Place presents an image, literally and figuratively, of how mobile phones are changing the way in which we buy things. If you’ve ever found yourself buying IKEA furniture that you just later realize has no place to be in your own home, you will have just found a savior on your rooms, your back, and your wallet. Once you download the app, you employ your device to snap a photograph of the place where you want to to visualise an IKEA object. Then you browse the app for an item, select it to insert it into your photo, and move it right into a place that works for you.
Features of IKEA Place
IKEA has rendered the pictures as three-dimensional objects within the app, complete with shading that responds to light within the given location that you’ve snapped and the feel of materials on the products. Also, the latency that you just sometimes encounter while you move objects around in an app has disappeared, at the same time as it routinely scales the dimensions of objects to suit into the space that you’ve snapped, which IKEA claims it’s doing with 98 percent accuracy. You can then share your pictures or save them and use the app to cost and reserve the items, and eventually buy them on an area site.
IKEA’s Background in 3D Imaging
IKEA’s work in 3D imaging goes back a great distance, which is one reason the corporate was capable of hit the bottom running and construct a functional, well-populated app in so little time. Michael Valdsgaard, who heads up digital transformation at IKEA, says that IKEA has been photographing its inventory for catalogs for years already in 3ds Max (the Autodesk software formerly referred to as 3D Studio), and, in reality, it has been using photo-realistic renders of those products, relatively than actual photos of them, for some time too. “Most of the stuff you see in our catalog are usually not real,” he said. “They are rendered and enhanced with light and shadows.”
Partnership with Apple
Another reason IKEA was an early partner of Apple’s and had a head start in constructing this app has to do with IKEA’s legacy as an early adopter. IKEA was certainly one of the primary big clients of Metaio, an augmented reality startup quietly acquired by Apple back in 2015. At the time, Metaio had around 1,000 customers. IKEA was certainly one of them, and the launch of IKEA Place today is an indication of the way it continued to work with that team because it became an element of Apple and helped construct ARKit.
Interview with Michael Valdsgaard
We took the chance to speak with Valdsgaard on the larger picture with IKEA, each the challenges and opportunities ahead. When asked in regards to the ethos for why IKEA chooses to develop certain tech products, Valdsgaard said, “We take a look at the world around us and ask, how is consumer behavior changing? Who involves IKEA and why, and who doesn’t? We are attempting to make use of tech to succeed in as many individuals as we are able to.”
Future Plans
Valdsgaard also discussed IKEA’s plans for the longer term, including using virtual reality. "We are also fiddling with VR," he said. "The only problem is that folks are usually not super comfortable with it. If you design a brand new kitchen and move around, it’s an excellent use case, but AR is more approachable." When asked about partnering with third parties, Valdsgaard said, "We have an innovation unit in Copenhagen called Space 10, an internal unit that reaches out to a network of other corporations depending on what our needs are."
Conclusion
In conclusion, IKEA Place is a game-changer for the retail industry, and it is a testament to IKEA’s commitment to innovation and customer experience. With its 3D imaging capabilities and seamless user interface, IKEA Place is about to revolutionize the way in which we shop for furniture. As Valdsgaard said, "AR will change all the things that we all know today." With IKEA on the forefront of this technology, we are able to expect to see much more exciting developments in the longer term.
