Virtual Kitchen Planner
Plan and visualize your future kitchen in AR
Jason Laan
Business Challenge
The typical kitchen planning process for the average person involves a visit to a kitchen retail store, which then sends a professional to the person’s home to perform a series of tedious measurements and produce a hand-drawn floor plan. Once equipped with a floor plan, the professional can then determine a configuration of cabinets that fits the space, and may even be able to show the potential customer a 3D rendering of the cabinets in a similar space.
Properly surveing a kitchen is an expensive process, normally requiring a site-visit from a specialist. Furthermore, the final kitchen visualization (hand-drawn or CAD-rendered) may not adequately give the customer a preview of their new kitchen.
“[let] customers plan and visualize their kitchens using Augmented Reality”
Approach
Laan Labs approached the problem for a large North American cabinet maker by creating a mobile application that enables prospective customers to plan and preview a virtual kitchen in augmented reality using a smartphone. The mobile app was built on the foundation of AirMeasure, the popular measuring app for iOS and Android devices.
The app enables users to measure an existing kitchen and quickly create a 3D floor plan. An in-app catalog of cabinetry provides the customer with many options to choose from- and preview into their space. The inventory of the virtual catalog is curated by the manufacturer using a tailor-made, cloud-based management interface.
Business Value
By empowering potential customers to measure their own space with a smartphone, one can save a costly site visit from a professional kitchen planner. Giving the customer the ability to configure and preview their future kitchen in augmented reality will help them to reach a decision with confidence, reduce returns, and increase customer satisfaction.
Technologies Utilized
Augmented Reality, Computer Vision, Mobile, iOS, Android, Python, Google Cloud Platform