In all the metaverse hype, some of the practical endpoints for 3D and AR technologies seem to get lost. Metaverse killer apps could end up being more practical use cases that infuse digital dimension to our physical space, rather than a Ready Player One future. This is the topic of Localogy Place 2022.
With that backdrop, we’re seeing real-world metaverse glimmers from Niantic, Snap, Google and others. And the latest to join the party is Shopify. It recently previewed its work with Apple’s Room Plan, allowing shoppers to visualize new decor in any room by swiping through design configurations.
As quick background, Room Plan is an API launched at Apple’s WWDC conference, which arms developers with 3D room-scanning capabilities for their apps. This unlocks spatial maps of a given space, which is the foundation for dimensionally layering in digital elements (think: kitchen remodel).
Reset Button
Back to Shopify, it is one of the first to pick up and run with the Room Plan API, hence its latest demonstration (see below). Its key feature is an AR concept known as erasing. It’s sort of the inverse of AR’s common connotation of overlaying digital objects – instead deleting things from the real world.
The point here is to create a blank canvas for any given room remodel, or what Shopify’s Russ Maschmeyer calls a “reset button.” In other words, once you have an empty room, the design visualization can really begin. Other AR design tools like IKEA Place work around furnished rooms.
The other benefit of Apple’s Room Plan, compared to home-grown apps like IKEA Place, is that it democratizes the underlying technology. Developers, retailers, and brands can just focus on the front end, while leaning on all the underlying computational work that Apple has already figured out.
Another missing piece of the value chain will be 3D model creation. For any given retailer to utilize this technology in a user-facing app, they also need 3D scans of their products, including color and texture variants. The workflows to create and manage these 3D assets at scale will be a big opportunity gap.
Speaking of missing pieces, another factor looming on the horizon is AR glasses. There are technical challenges and tradeoffs for graphical intensity versus stylistic viability. But when Apple and others can crack that code, all of the above goes from an upheld smartphone to a line-of-sight form factor.
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
Evolutionary Step
Backing up, it’s also worth noting that Apple’s Room Plan has some adoption barriers, such as requiring that end-users have a LiDAR-equipped iPhone or iPad. The good news is that this factor will recede as an adoption impediment as LiDAR gradually phases in and trickles down to lower-end iOS devices.
And as we examined recently, this phasing-in process will eat up the right amount of time, as developers also need to gain their footing with the new capability. Those two sides of the equation (essentially, supply and demand) could grow in step over the next few years and eventually transform home services.
And that brings us full circle to the real-world metaverse. Its promise could be in practical local use cases. It’s all about bringing digital dimension and metadata to the world around us to inform buying decisions. Those are the building blocks for local search, taken to their next (3D) evolutionary step.
Back to Shopify’s reset button, though it’s a concept, it’s something the company is actively working on. And it’s expressly using Apple’s Room Plan to do it. We’ll continue to see clever integrations with Room Plan that bring it in directions beyond interior design. That’s really the goal, and the magic, of any API.
