One trend of immersive technology that continues to persist is not neccessarily the creation of items, although there has certainly be instances where that has been the case in everything from buildings to furniture. Yet, at the same time, and ironically in the same categories of products I just mentioned, there is a continuing move to use both virtual reality (VR) and aumgented reality (AR) – though in particular the latter – as a means to save money. Or at least prevent unneccesary expendature.
We see it in the various furniture related apps we’ve seen over the last couple of years, the ones from IKEA and so forth. We’ve also seen it recently with Graham & Brown introducing an AR app that showed what a room would look like were it to be decorated in any number of styles under their umbrella. On the building design scale, we’ve seen an upturn in how architects are using VR as a way to adapt their designs and show them in advance to clients. (See VRFocus next week for an interview with a company that does just that, incidentally.)
Back in May we brought you news of an AR app that fits in the same sort of category. Curate, by Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Using Google’s ARCore and powered by roOomy (who previously teamed with Matterport), Curate helps potential home buyers to visualise a potential house as their own prior to any purchase. The app coming with an array of pre-set rooms to fill any empty spaces and help visualise things. Following a successful launch on Android, the team has now finalised a version for iOS using Apple’s ARKit toolset which is now available on the iTunes Store to download. This has been combined with a new partnership with Viyet, a subsidiary of Sotherby’s auction house which will be producing AR accessories based on the current inventory of the Viyet marketplace.
“The launch of Curate by Sotheby’s International Realty has generated excitement throughout our global network and we are proud to see our sales associates adopting this technology and using it as we intended,” said Global Vice President of Interactive Marketing for Sotheby’s, John Passerini. “There are nearly one billion active iOS devices worldwide. Making the app available on this platform was a high-priority for us, increasing the reach we have to our core audience. We look forward to continuing enhancements on Curate by Sotheby’s International Realty to better empower our sales associates and potential homebuyers.”
For more AR and VR news be sure to follow VRFocus.
via Mint VR