New IKEA Studio App Allows Users To Design Full Rooms

KEA has opened up beta access to its new IKEA Studio, the latest of its augmented reality design apps which allows users to customize entire rooms with IKEA furniture and decor. 

Back in 2017, IKEA released the IKEA Place app, which coincided with the launch of Apple’s ARKit, which allowed users to place single pieces of augmented reality furniture and decor in the users real world environment. The new IKEA Studio allows users to furnish entire rooms, the idea was developed by IKEA’s own Copenhagen-based studio SPACE10.

The app is available for those using one of one of Apple’s LiDAR-powered iPhones. This iOS-exclusive app works by capturing 3D room plans and measurements using the LiDAR sensors featured on the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. This new technology generates a mesh scale capable of identifying surfaces, objects, and the geometry of your real-world environment, resulting in more realistic AR experiences.

IKEA Studio’s built in AI is able to identify existing objects, doorways and windows, when the app identifies a real world object, it automatically places a white box over these items, allowing the user to focus on their redesign as they change wall colors, arrange new furniture, and decorate their own environment with a wide range of IKEA products. The new app even allows for digital furniture to be stacked on top of each other, for example, placing a potted plant, candle or lamp on a shelf. A selection of these items even feature simple interactive elements.

Digital Design Lead at SPACE10, Tommy Campbell stated:

“While we have developed what is right now a mobile application, we’ve also been interested in what devices like glasses might be able to do for this technology,” 

Campbell continued: 

“So we’ve made very deliberate decisions to paint the vision of Studio as one that can exist on both the smartphone or in a glasses-like setting. We’ve also used a new renderer reality kit from Apple that lets us achieve a level of detail on these models that hasn’t been seen before in IKEA’s AR portfolio.”

SPACE10 is also experimenting with potential WebAR solutions, which would allow customers to access augmented reality design experiences directly from the official IKEA website without the need for an app.

Campbell concludes that:

“Chrome and Safari and Mozilla are all playing around with web AR experiences… Could that be the next platform? Instead of developing an iOS or Android app, can we have a web experience for Studio that would work for everyone?”

For those interested in testing out the beta version can sign up, if selected, the user will receive an email from TestFlight with additional instructions. Users will need an iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro Max in order to download this LiDAR-powered experience.