Houzz Inc., a digital interior design company, updated its mobile app with an augmented reality (AR) feature that enables shoppers to virtually cover their floor with tile, “true-to-scale,” according to the company.

“There is a stark difference between trying to imagine how a tile sample will look throughout a room and being able to view the room’s entire floor covered in the new tile using AR,” said Sally Huang, head of visual technologies at Houzz in a press release. “We continue to make AR-enabled shopping even more immersive and useful on Houzz. Our View in My Room 3D tool now helps people discover, select and buy the best tile for their space, in the correct quantity, all within the Houzz app.”

Footage courtesy of Houzz.

The View in My Room 3D tool is powered by patent-pending technology that detects the location and orientation of floors with the intent of allowing shoppers to virtually cover the space with tile to see what their homes would look like with new flooring. Shoppers can find out how much tile is needed to cover the space and order an appropriate amount of material all within the Houzz app.

After scanning the floor and pointing the device to each corner of the room to set the perimeter, the tool populates the floor with tile in 3D on the screen and estimate the amount needed for the project. Products can be directly added to the shopping cart for easy checkout. Shoppers can also capture what’s on their screen and save the photo to a Houzz ideabook, where it can be shared with family, a home professional or other collaborators. Houzz also integrated the View in My Room 3D with their platform with the intent that people can get inspired from home design photos, discover products, view them in AR, and purchase them from the comfort of their home.

Since Houzz launched its initial version of View in My Room 3D within its app for iPhone and iPad in May 2017, the company claims that over two million people have used AR when buying products in the Houzz app. According to the company, people who engaged with the tool were 11 times more likely to purchase items and spent 2.7 times more time in the app. The Houzz app is available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and for Android devices.

The magic of AR is that it has the capacity to bring something as large of scale and conceptually complex as furniture and interior design products into a space that’s easier for people to understand. Our sister organization, th3rd coast Media Solutions, was able to accomplish a similar feat using larger scale office furniture.