Watch Furniture Get Deleted from a Room in Demo of Apple AR Tech
A Shopify developer has shown a demonstration of an augmented reality (AR) experience that lets users “reset” a room and remove all furniture, which gives a peek at the power of Apple’s recently announced RoomPlan AR API.
The demonstration comes courtesy of Russ Maschmeyer from Shopify who published a series of Tweets that showcase the idea behind a new AR prototype that leans on Apple’s AR API. He refers to it as being able to hit the “reset button” on a room and see what it would look like completely empty of furniture, The Verge reports.
The demonstration shows how the technology scans a room using Apple’s RoomPlan API, a tool for developers that was showcased at WWDC earlier this year. The tool uses the LiDAR sensor on iPhones and iPads to scan the geometry of a room and build a 3D model of the space that developers can then use for a variety of purposes.
The API can be completely customized to a specific app’s user experience and scan guidance or utilize the built-in coaching UI for optimal scans, visual feedback illustrating real-time scanning progress, and a dollhouse visualization that shows everything in the room that has been recognized, Apple explains.
Lots of interest in this “reset button” for your room we built @Shopify that uses @apple’s new #RoomPlan API. Here’s how we built it… 👇 🧵1/12 pic.twitter.com/YdNP1vebVW
— Russ Maschmeyer (@StrangeNative) July 13, 2022
“AR makes it easy to try new couches, but the couch already in your space can get in the way,” Maschmeyer writes.
“What if every room had a reset button? Space Eraser models spaces in high-fidelity—capturing room-defining objects, their size, position, [and] orientation.”
He explains that live pixel data combines with LiDAR depth information to create a “digital twin” of a room that can be overlaid on the actual space and then edited digitally.
Live pixel data combines with LiDAR depth data to enable a lifelike digital twin of your room that can be overlaid onto your real space using AR and then edited digitally… [3/12] pic.twitter.com/3Nu1ph0aXz
— Russ Maschmeyer (@StrangeNative) July 13, 2022
“With an empty room, shoppers can now swipe through room sets which leverage the orientation of existing furniture to arrange themselves automatically,” he continues. “With a digital twin of your room and your furniture you could simply swipe your original sofa away to explore options that better match the rest of the room.”
Maschmeyer’s full thread not only explains the concept and final execution, but also the ways he and other developers approach problems like this and how they create solutions.
“AR and RoomPlan are exciting tools for commerce. The ability to select and remove real objects from a scene brings us one step closer to a fully editable reality,” he concludes.
Image credits: Header photo via Apple
