IKEA Furnishes Steam with VR App Solution

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IKEA VR EXperience

IKEA launches a pilot virtual reality app, the IKEA VR Experience, that helps to re-create a kitchen shopping and refurbishing experience. It is the first time the giant Swedish furniture retailer (previously they experimented with AR app) introduces a VR solution to its customers.

The IKEA Group has 332 stores in 28 countries. There are also more than 40 stores run by franchisees outside the IKEA Group. The IKEA Group had 771 million visitors during FY15 and 1.9 billion people visited IKEA.com.

“Virtual reality is developing quickly and in five to ten years it will be an integrated part of people’s lives. We see that virtual reality will play a major role in the future of our customers. For instance, someday, it could be used to enable customers to try out a variety of home furnishing solutions before buying them,” says Jesper Brodin, MD at IKEA Sweden and Range & Supply Manager at IKEA Group.

The app is for HTC Vive and is found on Steam, a digital distribution platform developed by Valve Corporation offering digital rights management (DRM), multiplayer gaming and social networking services. This app was developed in collaboration with French company Allegorithmic (they make 3D software used in VR, film and even architecture visualization) and with Epic Games (Unreal Engine 4).

Using an HTC Vive headset to bring the user to a virtual real-size IKEA kitchen, consumers can explore one of three differently-styled kitchen room settings. The user can change the color of cabinets and drawers as well as material finishes with a click, walk around freely, open drawers-- and even remove stuff by placing in the waste-sorting station.

Another feature is the ability to view the kitchen from different perspectives. You can shrink or stretch yourself to move around the kitchen at the size of a 3.3 foot-tall child or a 6.4 foot-tall adult.

“This could be useful for the user, since walking around the room in someone else’s shoes enables you to discover hidden dangers or possible design solutions,” explains the company.

Using the link below, you can find an email address to give feedback on how to improve the IKEA VR Experience. The IKEA VR Experience will be continuously updated until August when this particular pilot test ends.

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