A tool for testing furniture in virtual mode

Get to know the interior of Ikea furniture: Here’s what the Scandinavian brand offers with an augmented reality tool that allows you to project yourself into a futuristic décor before making a decision.

Changing a room’s decoration can be as fun as it is an ordeal, especially when you can’t stand out. To help its customers visualize their future interiors, Ikea has developed an original tool in augmented reality. It’s called Ikea Kreativ, and it uses artificial intelligence to analyze images of rooms in the house and then scan the furniture there by replacing it with models from the Scandinavian specialist – and that’s just of course! An original and smart way to imagine layouts and experience furniture without moving, which corresponds to a real need and new habits of consumers. In a published post on his blog, Ikea explains that 60% of its customers have changed the design of their homes since the pandemic and that more and more consumers are now preferring to buy remotely, online, without having to travel. Hence the idea of ​​offering an innovative and practical solution that brings some of what makes the Swedish brand so magical.

IKEA Creative: Visualize Furniture Right At Home

The operation of Ikea Kreativ is relatively simple and fun, as evidenced by the video made by Ikea. First you have to use a smartphone to take a series of pictures of the room using the Scene Scanner function. Once the panoramic photo is taken – by shaking the phone in a number eight motion to capture more visual data – the AI ​​analyzes the scanned scene, the image must be modified directly in the app or on the Ikea website on the computer to scan the furniture you want to remove and replace it with the default IKEA furniture . For those who don’t want to scan their home, there are also more than fifty virtual showrooms to place furniture in. This function currently offers thousands of furniture, rugs, accessories and wall decorations from the Ikea catalog. There are plans to add support for additional product categories such as ceiling-mounted furniture and textiles next year.

Ikea Kreativ’s presentation is realistic and respectful of proportions. But it is not completely accurate, and it is very necessary to check the dimensions of the analyzed furniture and parts before placing the order, to make sure everything fits … Moreover, the tool only gives a 2D view, and you can’t see the virtual furniture from all angles, Which is very frustrating.

Ikea Kreativ is already available in the United States. But, for now, only through the Ikea app for iOS, which requires the use of an iPhone or iPad for analysis. But an Android release is planned for this summer. Likewise, the tool is scheduled to be launched in other countries next year.