Online retailing giant Amazon is making some big strides in augmented reality this week with the launch of its AR View option in its Android app.
One of the most common use cases we’ve seen for AR thus far is to allow shoppers to visualize how products might look in their home. Think about projecting a virtual sofa into your living room to make sure it fits with the wallpaper, for example, or to size up space for a new bed. Amazon’s AR Viewer does exactly that; you can swipe through a long list of products that you’ll find on the Amazon online store and then project them into your real-world surroundings, viewed through the smartphone’s screen.
The projections allow you to get a full 360 degree view of the product in question, all of which have been faithfully recreated as a 3D model. Once you find something you like you’ll be able to pick it up through the same app. It’s a pretty big first step into AR for Amazon; how might the company build on this in the future?
AR View is already available on Apple’s iOS devices with ARKit enabled.
