Adam Pickard is a big fan of Ikea’s augmented reality app that lets you try out furniture in your home before buying it. But Pickard apparently thought a smartphone could be just as useful during the assembly process, so he mocked up a demo of an app that uses augmented reality to make building Swedish furniture infinitely easier.
For the time being, Pickard’s AssembleAR app is just a concept project, so don’t go scouring your smartphone’s app store looking for it. But hopefully Ikea will take notice and make the app a reality, as it cleverly improves upon the furniture makers’ printed building instructions by demonstrating how all the parts and fasteners go together using animated 3D models. The app would all but eliminate the cliches about Ikea furniture being frustrating to build, but unfortunately it wouldn’t do anything to make shopping at Ikea any less nightmarish.
[Adam Pickard via Prosthetic Knowledge]