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Comment by johansch | Hacker News Reader

So when do they take the obvious step of providing an easy to use 3d modeller where customers can model their homes using ikea furniture?

They do have a tool sort of like this for kitchen design (developed by Configura in Linköping, Sweden). But I want something for the entire home!

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You can use the IKEA catalog iOS app to see show items in your home using augmented reality. It uses the physical catalog as a reference in the camera view to determine size and viewing angle (there was an option if you don't have the catalog, but I didn't try it to see the alternatives).

Works decently well, enough so that I used it to pick out a TV stand.

There's a very large selection of Ikea models in the Sketchup 3d Warehouse - I'm not sure who keeps things up to date there, but that pretty much fits the bill for what you're asking. It's actually how I designed my study, and I ended up rearranging the furniture three times (virtually) before deciding on what I needed to buy, and I'm so glad that rearranging was done on my screen and not on my floor.

Not really having paid much attention to how they did do their catalogs in the past, I just kind of presumed they were moving towards 3D instead of 'real' photography.. and I guess my assumption has been proved right (makes sense - it's a lot more flexible).

I can only wait for a well integrated 'select the furniture for your own house app/site/whatever'.. which.. makes me wonder if they're considering some of the opportunities presented by VR or - better - AR (such as Meta and others).

AR overlays of how furniture would look in your own home, would be quite neat!

They actually have AR overlays already. What you do is lay the catalog down on the floor, and the iPad app uses it as a size reference to generate the overlay. It's a little finicky in practice but still pretty impressive.

Interesting! I did not know that. Thanks for the heads up, I shall investigate further :)

They actually provide a (somewhat limited) AR furniture placement iOS app as a supplement to the 2014 catalogue:

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/about_ikea/newsitem/2014catalogue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDNzTasuYEw

Or the other obvious step (once 3D goggles mature) of replacing the physical shop with an online shop. Or combine the two: instead of you visiting IKEA's virtual shop, the virtual items are sent to you and rendered in 3D and overlayed on your existing room, so you can walk around the item and see what it looks like in your own room. You then press the "buy" button and it is delivered.

Fun and games then ensues when people figure how to dump the information from IKEA to their 3D printers.

> Or the other obvious step (once 3D goggles mature) of replacing the physical shop with an online shop.

I'm not sure they'd ever do that. They want you in their stores. Their stores are structured so that you have to go through everything and see everything and activate that "nesting instinct."

"Hmm, I want a chair, but that cutting board is really nice... and there's a knife block that matches it. And I guess I'll get some storage containers too. Might as well get lunch while I'm here."

True.

A virtual store could also deliver in that department though, in that knife blocks and storage containers could always be situated in the neighbouring department, no matter what the customer was actually looking for. The accessories and decorations in each in-virtual-store display could also be tailored on a per customer basis, depending on what Ikea knows about the customer. "Nice table, and I really like the placemats they have used on it...". One can imagine Ikea providing a "buy the lot" option in their payment process.

Then they wouldn't have an online store either, and they do. I think an online 3D shopping experiment would work for them. Otherwise the competition will go that way and they would be leapfrogged.

They don't have an online store in most countries though, do they?

Usually you just order and then you have to go pick up everything you ordered.

But you pick it up on the ground floor without having to walk through their carefully arranged showroom.

The have an online store in several countries. I've heard from people who work there they're not expanding the trial due to shipping not working with their slim margins (paying for one person returning a sofa ruins the profitability).

They are adding new ones:

http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/rooms_ideas/splashplanners_new....

It will take a few years but the interactive 'show your webcam your house and then populate the empty shell with ikea stuff' is likely some year away.

Check out the Autodesk HomeStyler app: http://www.homestyler.com/mobile

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