It is now possible to place furniture in your home via augmented reality with the Wehkamp app. Behind this position is a 16-year-old boy.
Place furniture via augmented reality with the Wehkamp app
The Wehkamp app is the newest place to place furniture in your home via augmented reality before you buy it. Open the app and select ‘augmented reality’ in the menu to start. You must first give the app access to your camera, after which you press the plus sign, select a piece of furniture and place it.
Then you walk freely around your room while the furniture remains in place. Unfortunately, you cannot test how soft the virtual sofa is, but you can test whether the size and color match the rest of your interior.
The story behind this position
There is a nice story behind this position. On Wehkamp’s tech blog, Jari writes how he was 15 years old when Apple’s augmented reality platform ARKit was announced. He was even in the audience during the keynote because of a scholarship won. After the presentation, he wanted to get started with the technology himself, but he didn’t have the hardware for that.
Jari went to high school, but he felt bad there. What kept him going was programming at home. That is why he started iOS development in 2015 and had created his first app a few months later. “WWDC has been one of the coolest weeks of my life, meeting tons of new people who all have the same interest as I do.”
Because it was still not going well at high school, Jari dropped out completely. In consultation with the school, he decided to look for an internship as an iOS developer. He started at Wehkamp at the end of 2017. There he was given complete freedom to do whatever he wanted, so he finally decided to get started with augmented reality.
Difficulty with development
With only three days of ARKit experience, Jari had to get started with the basics, but the young programmer already got a long way through Apple’s documentation. The app team had to find a third party for the models of the furniture.
However, these virtual furniture looked like inflatable plastic halfway through development. It took a while for the makers to realize that this was because of the lighting. The problem is then solved by letting the light point from the smartphone come into the hand of the user.
The result is astonishing. The furniture, currently only sofas and chairs, not only looks good, but also stays in place thanks to the technology behind ARKit. Jari has now completed his internship at Wehkamp and now has a job at the company. And even better news: “I’ve officially finished school, so I can follow my passion for programming.”
More ARKit concepts
ARKit isn’t quite as big as Apple probably hoped it would be. Nevertheless, apps like Wehkamp clearly show the practical added value. Other developers are also busy. Check out these 7 creative and practical concepts for ARKit 2.0.