[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] It has become common for consumers to decide on purchases after checking interior design by pre-arranging furniture or home appliances inside their homes using augmented reality (AR) and 3D simulation. Especially for high-priced furniture or interior remodeling construction, customers are responding positively as they can preview the entire interior space after construction in a virtual environment, preventing trial and error.
Hanssem, which dominates the domestic interior remodeling market, offers a 3D simulation consultation program called 'Home Planner.' Before remodeling, users can virtually install various furniture and building materials with Home Planner to preview the post-construction appearance.
With a database (DB) of 3D floor plans for over 50,000 apartments nationwide, users can easily retrieve data by simply specifying the desired apartment and size. At home, they can also access Hanssem.com’s 'Interior Decoration Cases' to explore over 1,000 space contents in virtual reality (VR). Information on individual product prices, materials, and sizes is also available at a glance.
Ace Bed, the number one company in the bed industry, is the first in the industry to provide consumer experience services through the AR application 'ACEROOM.' Consumers can judge whether a bed fits well in their space before purchasing. They can select the bed’s color and size, mattress type, and apply four types of room sets such as matching nightstands or dressing tables to create diverse bedroom interiors.
Additionally, with a DB of floor plans for about 95,000 apartments nationwide, users planning to move or currently residing in an apartment can place beds in their space and even change wallpaper or flooring.
Ilroom, a lifestyle furniture brand under the Fursys Group, offers a 'Space Proposal Consulting' service that allows customers to experience the entire process in 3D before purchasing products. This full-package VR service enables one-stop operations from finding apartment floor plans to furniture arrangement, interior design, and estimate confirmation. It runs in a web environment without separate installation and supports segmented user groups for general customers and business users.
The business version, enhanced with sales functions, is designed for Ilroom store staff. It includes an 'order function' for quick ordering and delivery of products listed in estimates to facilitate smooth communication with customers, a 'comparison function' that helps customers make decisions by comparing two 3D spaces, and a 'block setting function' that allows pre-designation of key or set products and immediate retrieval of placement shots.
Lotte Hi-Mart provides an 'AR Virtual Placement Experience Service' that allows customers to pre-place and purchase home appliances using augmented reality. Users can select AR-supported products from the 'AR Experience' menu in the Lotte Hi-Mart mobile app to try the service. It includes basic 'AR placement' functionality, 'length measurement' using a virtual tape measure to measure the size of the space where the product is placed, and a 'share' function to capture and share the virtual image placement screen.
Except for Hanssem, most domestic companies use Urbanbase’s '3D Interior Simulation' platform to provide 3D simulation services to customers. Urbanbase has secured floor plan DBs for 98% of domestic apartments (over 10 million households) and offers a software development kit (SDK) to client companies, allowing customized and diverse extended applications on their platforms.
An industry insider said, "3D simulation services using AR and VR minimize the gap that occurs when furniture and appliances, even after being sufficiently checked online and offline, are actually placed inside the home," adding, "As customer satisfaction with this increases, such services are becoming more widespread."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
