Several stores are turning to technology to help artists and customers create their remodels homes using a new design tool: virtual reality.
The mainstream acceptance of virtual reality in one form or another is more or less a given at this point. The technology still has some hurdles to overcome, but there is no denying its potential. At the moment the entertainment industry is leading the way in VR development, but more and more companies are finding ways to make use of the technology, especially design.
Using VR, developers and designers can recreate and customize real locations in a virtual setting. Companies are catching on to this and taking full advantage in a variety of ways, and it is only going to get more common.
One of the pioneers in this is IKEA. The Swedish furniture company recently debuted a new virtual reality tool in many of its stores and on Steam. Users can put on a VR headset and experience a VR display kitchen, where they can move around and experience a virtual kitchen, complete with cooking virtual food.
The virtual kitchen was designed to be a test, with users sending in feedback telling IKEA what they wanted to see more of. Unsurprisingly given IKEA, the top response was “meatballs,” but it has potential to revolutionize the way people shop. If you’ve been to an IKEA store and seen its model rooms, designed to show customers the potential in minimal space, you have an idea of where they might be heading. Imagine looking for decorating tips and simply jumping online to IKEA’s virtual gallery, then selecting furniture to purchase right there, and you can begin to imagine the potential.
It’s perhaps still a year or even a few years from fruition, but eventually, it’s likely that we’ll also see virtual reality used as a remodeling tool. Customers will be able to upload a 3D 360-degree video of a room they want to remodel – say a bathroom, for argument sake. In virtual reality, using a company like IKEA’s selection of items, users will be able to virtually recreate their kitchen. If you’d like to see what your bathroom would look like with yellow paint and a porcelain bath, you just need to click on the right combination. If you want to try a new shower and orange walls instead, you can. We’re not quite there yet technologically speaking, but it is coming.
There are other companies working on VR in related, but slightly separate fields as well. Lowe’s, one of the largest building material stores in the world, recently introduced a virtual reality kiosk to several of its stores, where users can experience a tutorial on how to tile a floor, including how to mix the cement and how to lay the tile. This isn’t recommended for larger projects, of course, but it can help with small DIY projects. It’s not all that different from the countless videos on YouTube that offer the same advice, but there’s a real difference in watching someone explain how to do something in a video and actively doing it yourself in VR, even if your actions are just simulations.
Microsoft is also working on its Hololens, which can do something similar. Using augmented reality as opposed to virtual reality, wearers can watch a guided tutorial on how to do something like replace a pipe under a sink. While wearing the headset and looking at the real pipe, an animated guide will show them exactly what to do. The user then can follow exact directions, including things like where to hold the pipe.
Virtual reality, and to a degree augmented reality, are changing countless industries. And construction is no different.
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