IKEA Robotic Furniture Assembly

 Had heard a previous overview of this, if this could be done effectively it  would likely increase sales.  As I understand it is still a proposal, tell me if otherwise.

Need help building IKEA furniture? This robot can lend a hand  by Caitlin Dawson, University of Southern California  in Techxplore

As robots increasingly join forces to work with humans—from nursing care homes to warehouses to factories—they must be able to proactively offer support. But first, robots have to learn something we know instinctively: how to anticipate people's needs.

With that goal in mind, researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering have created a new robotic system that accurately predicts how a human will build an IKEA bookcase, and then lends a hand—providing the shelf, bolt or screw necessary to complete the task. The research was presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation on May 30, 2021.

"We want to have the human and robot work together—a robot can help you do things faster and better by doing supporting tasks, like fetching things," said the study's lead author Heramb Nemlekar. "Humans will still perform the primary actions, but can offload simpler secondary actions to the robot."

Nemlekar, a Ph.D. student in computer science, is supervised by Stefanos Nikolaidis, an assistant professor of computer science, and co-authored the paper with Nikolaidis and SK Gupta, a professor of aerospace, mechanical engineering and computer science who holds the Smith International Professorship in Mechanical Engineering.

Adapting to variations

In 2018, a robot created by researchers in Singapore famously learned to assemble an IKEA chair itself. In this new study, the USC research team aims to focus instead on human-robot collaboration.

There are advantages to combining human intelligence and robot strength. In a factory for instance, a human operator can control and monitor production, while the robot performs the physically strenuous work. Humans are also more adept at those fiddly, delicate tasks, like wiggling a screw around to make it fit.

The key challenge to overcome: humans tend to perform actions in different orders. For instance, imagine you're building a bookcase—do you tackle the easy tasks first, or go straight for the difficult ones? How does the robot helper quickly adapt to variations in its human partners?  ... ' 

Embedding Human Expertise

Useful examination of delivering expertise, human and otherwise.

Crate and Barrel marries human expertise with tech advances in a new concept store   by Matthew Stern

Crate and Barrel is piloting a standalone store concept that lets customers take advantage of all of their design and decorating expertise and guidance in one physical location.

Crate and Barrel opened its first Design Studio at the end of January in Pasadena, CA, according to the Pasadena Star News. The new location brings the online experience of Crate and Barrel’s design services to its own store, where customers can get specialized help from experts on how to decorate rooms from the ground up, using 3-D renderings and choosing from furniture and décor. The store will have items not available at other Crate and Barrel locations and will also allow visitors to choose custom and made-to-order furniture.  ....  "

AR Continues Struggle in Retail

An area we spent lots of early time in.  Good overview article of current work.

Despite advancements, AR struggles to take off in retail   By Anna Hensel in Modern Retail
This is the third part in a series by Modern Retail about the technologies that were going to change retail — and where they are now. See our previous stories, about the future of robotics, and the truth about RFID.

Three years ago, retailers began spending money on AR.

In 2017, Williams-Sonoma acquired Outward, an AR and 3D imaging startup for $112 million. The following year, Ulta Beauty also acquired an AR startup for an undisclosed amount, as did L’Oreal. Retailers like Walmart and Nike acquired other startups that specialized in virtual reality and computer vision, but also with the goal of using them to create experiences that incorporated some type of virtual reality component.

That ushered in a stampede of retailers eager to experiment with AR. Michael Kors and Warby Parker were some of the first companies to experiment with running AR in Facebook ads. Macy’s launched AR experiences for both furniture and beauty shoppers.

AR right now is big among two categories: beauty or furniture. Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Wayfair, Williams-Sonoma and Ikea have all launched virtual try-on experiences that use AR. Retailers in apparel have also experimented with adding these types of tools — the most recent being Asos — many of those efforts remain firmly in the experimentation phase. Because of the nature of the technology, it’s really those three industries where it can make a real difference — especially in fashion.

But even for the retailers who have invested heavily in AR by building their own virtual try on experiences, they haven’t been able to point definitively to how much their AR tools have resulted in a sales increase.

“There’s still some hyping [around AR], no doubt,” said Andrew Lispman, e-commerce analyst at eMarketer. “But I think the reality has set in when you see the initial use cases…are mostly edge cases. They may work well for their category, but it’s not a use case that extends between all or even most categories.”   ...." 

LG Comes Up with a Smart Sofa

The concept is new to me, but why can't the sofa be a hub like a frig?  Can it capture the consumer  imagination the smart speaker has? Will use Google assistant or LG Signature App for 'intelligence'.

LG’s Colosseo smart sofa is the comfiest piece of tech in your home

How often have you sat on the couch and wished it reclined, even just a small amount, so you could have a more comfortable viewing angle? While some couches recline, it’s usually an all-or-nothing choice — and there is almost never an easy way to do it besides pulling a lever. LG aims to change that via a partnership with the Italian furniture brand Natuzzi.

At the LG Signature “Smart Living Concept” Show, the company debuted the Colosseo smart sofa. Connected furniture is still a relative rarity in the smart home space, and while LG has included Bluetooth speakers and some touch controls in its furniture, the Colosseo is something new. The sofa is designed to work with all your other smart home tech in the room, and comes with five different custom scenarios to match what you’re using it for.

The five scenarios — reading, relaxing, watching TV, listening to music, or pause — are designed to provide the maximum amount of comfort while doing any one of those activities. They can be controlled via the LG Signature app, an LG TV or LG smart speaker, or through Google Assistant.  ... " 

Sotheby's International Realty Does VR

Did work in the auction space, so I follow Sotheby's,   On the face of this VR App looks impressive.  An obvious area of VR application.   See also previous posts on room design and furnuture.

Sotheby’s International Realty First Real Estate Brand to Launch Augmented Reality App: Introducing Curate by Sotheby’s International Realty

Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC today announced the launch of Curate by Sotheby’s International Realty, a mobile augmented reality (AR) app that will bring a home’s virtual staging images from 2-D perception into augmented reality.

“Buying a house is not only a significant financial decision, but is also deeply personal and emotional. Introducing an augmented reality component to the homebuying experience takes the consumer on a personal journey that allows them to see a house transformed into a home, their home, through the magic of technology.” – John Passerini, global vice president of interactive marketing, Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC

The app was built with ARCore, Google’s AR Software platform, and is powered by roOomy, the leading virtual staging technology platform specializing in 3D/AR/VR content creation and application development.  Curate by Sotheby’s International Realty allows consumers to visualize a house as their own before purchase, thereby curating the homebuying experience. Working closely with Google in the run up to ARCore’s release, the Sotheby’s International Realty® brand is the first real estate brand to launch and implement a virtual staging AR app, transforming the homebuying and selling experience for sales associates and consumers.  ... " 

Macy's Using Virtual Reality for Furniture Sales

Really a pretty old idea, was one of the first ideas we examined for demonstration and sales.    I encountered IKEAs approach in-store  just a few days ago, well done, but not enough AR to understand how your choices would fit in.   Also drove home the point that for store and online experiences the consumer needs to be able to use the system quickly.  Its different in research.   We experimented with it to understand how product would exist on shelves with other products.   See also approaches that mix VR, AR and physical digital displays, such as John Milby's Full Scale Virtual Research (FSVR).

Macy’s will use VR to sell furniture in 50 stores by summer
 By Jeremy Horowitz  @Horowitz  in Venturebeat

VR and online shopping are often portrayed as enemies of brick-and-mortar retail, but shopping mall anchor Macy’s plans to embrace both technologies in a bid to improve its sales, reports FurnitureToday. Speaking at the ShopTalk retail conference in Las Vegas, Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette announced that he will bring VR furniture-selling tools to 50 stores by this summer and plans to offer the immersive shopping technology in “as many stores as possible.”

According to Gennette, the virtue of virtual reality is its ability to “sell more furniture with less, or even no, square footage devoted to displaying it.” Macy’s piloted a VR system that let customers use a tablet to add furniture to a room, move the pieces around until they seemed optimal, then experience the fully furnished room using VR. The system enabled customers to feel more comfortable about furniture fit and “significantly increased” both total transaction sizes and sales of items that Macy’s carries but didn’t keep on site.  .... " 

Augmented Reality Sensing Form and Depth

Will this drive us to better augmented reality shopping?   At IKEA a few days ago I used some of their on floor furniture placement and design Apps, nicely done, but could have used better space understanding capabilities.  What really engages for product usage and selection  in-place?

Depth-Sensing, Algorithms And Retail Shopping Allowing AiFi To Push The Boundaries Of Interactivity

AiFi is combining artificial intelligence with mixed and augmented reality.   By Nina Salomons  in VRFocus.

Founded by former Google and Apple engineers, AiFi is combining artificial intelligence (A.I.) with ARKit on Apple products such as iPhones and iPads. Speaking to VRFocus, co-founder and CEO Steve Gu explained how AiFi has enabled consumer products to understand detailed 3D shapes and activities, including individuals and their surroundings.   .... " 

Shopping with AR

What the best way to shop using Augmented Reality?   Apple and IKEA team up.  Planning for the advanced AR capabilities in future I-Phones.

Apple Team Up With IKEA To Create AR Shopping App

Apple users will soon be able to see what furniture from IKEA fits their home using augmented reality.   By Rebecca Hills-Duty in VRFocus:

Apple have begun making a push towards augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology recently. With news that SteamVR would be supporting Mac platforms, and the iPhone 8 expected to have advanced AR capabilities, Apple have teamed with well-know furniture store IKEA to create an AR shopping app to show off some of Apple’s new focus.

The app is designed to help customers in choosing what kind of furniture and accessories they wish to buy for their home. By using an iPhone camera to view the customer’s home, and overlaying the image of the furniture in question over the top, it is possible to get an impression of what the sofa, or table or lamp would like like when placed in the home, allowing customers to make more informed buying decisions. .... "

Home Furnishing

I examined some early attempts at using online methods for buying home furnishing, usually with online camera interaction.  The idea of selling furnishing online is reemerging.  How does the Browser-Buyer change occur?   Piece in Think with Google.

Will IKEA Sell Through the Amazon Marketplace?

Nothing fixed yet, but rumor is out that IKEA might start test selling through the Amazon marketplace.  But also that Amazon might itself start selling furniture.  Have followed  IKEA for years, though their printed catalogs and online.   Even with VR interaction.   Makes sense, for IKEA to spread its unique goods into a broader field.   And Amazon has legendary fulfillment service.   More and discussion.

Using the Perfect Office Surface

As part of our innovation spaces we worked with office furniture manufacturers to scope out the needs of the future office.  The question was always if there would be substantial offices in the future at all.   And can such offices significantly influence creativity?   Can the use of 'surfaces' in offices as displays and design spaces make a difference?    While augmented reality all these spaces to exist anywhere?   In Engadget:

Microsoft and Steelcase envision the perfect Surface office
They've unveiled five "Creative Spaces" with office furniture for Surface products.

Steve Dent, @stevetdent

With the Surface Book, Surface Studio and other products, Microsoft has managed to attract graphics pros, designers and engineers, many used to working with Apple products. It's now taking the next logical step by expanding into workspace lifestyle concepts via a partnership with Steelcase. The two companies have unveiled "Creative Spaces," which are office furniture layout concepts optimized to work with Surface products.

There are five sets of new products. The "Focus Studio," designed with Microsoft's Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 in mind, gives workers "alone time to focus and get into flow, while also allowing quick shifts to two-person collaboration." Meanwhile, the "Duo Studio" lets designers work in pairs or individually via a Surface Studio all-in-one. It also includes a lounge area for creative review with others on the giant-screened Surface Hub, an interactive white board.

The "Ideation Hub" is also a conference-style space that lets colleagues work on ideas in person or remotely on the Surface Hub. "Maker Commons" is aimed a rapid prototyping "hackathon"-style teams to "encourage quick switching between conversation, experimentation and concentration," using a mix of devices like the Surface Hub and Surface Pro laptops. Finally, the "Respite Room" is a fully private space that lets you relax and think.  .... " 

Computers as Furniture

Interesting suggestion, that we are not all that interested in the evolving capabilities of computing.  Its furniture, we need it, but the details are unimportant.   So the announcements being made in the fall are less closely watched.by the public.   Industry though,  often in the process of digitization, needs to know the details to make good decisions.  And anyone who works with computers at work, and that is now most everyone, should be aware.  In The Verge: 

Mossberg: The PC has become part of the furniture
New designs are coming, but not that old excitement
by Walt Mossberg@waltmossberg  ... " 

Real Pins for Pinterest

In AdWeek:  Pinterest's Real-World Pins Let In-Store Shoppers Save Real Items to Virtual Boards DM9DDB tests the app in Brazil's biggest furniture store By Tim Nudd

I like the deal of connecting the real world to the virtual.  Here is an interesting real world retail test example.  Not sure this would work.  Reminds me of tests we did that got people tactically involved with design layouts, which seemed to have better engagement.

Talk on Using Retail Beacons

In Retailwire: 
" ... There is hope for in-store beacons yet, but the primary ways retailers have been implementing them thus far have been the wrong ones. That was the main takeaway in a session given by Adam Silverman, principal analyst at Forrester Research, accompanied by Jeff Douglas, general manager of e-commerce at Nebraska Furniture Mart, at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition in Chicago last week.

In his presentation, Mr. Silverman showed that, in response to the question, “How interested would you be in allowing your smartphone to interact with beacon technology in a store environment to help offer the following contextual experiences?” special offers, loyalty rewards and rewards for checking in to the store topped the list. These results, however, may be deceptive, as they could reflect customers’ stated desires and not actual behavior.   ...  "            by Matthew Stern. 

Retailer to Use Tango for Augmented Reality

I recall a number of related applications for inserting architecture elements into a space.   Augmenting reality by manipulating chosen insertions.    How can this be made as easy as possible?  Tango would provide space sensing and area-learning capability.    Does it also imply the need for handsfree manipulation?     In CWorld:

" ... Wayfair Inc. , a Boston-based, 14-year-old e-commerce company that sells home furnishings, is working on an app based on Google's Project Tango technology that would put augmented reality, and  
If all goes as planned, customers using Wayfair's app would go beyond looking at a photo of a love seat or table, reading the measurements and wondering how the piece would look in their living room.

The app would use Project Tango's mapping, computer vision, depth-sensing, 3D-motion tracking and machine-learning technology to allow customers to see – on their Android smartphone or tablet – how a piece of furniture would look in their home. ... "  

Robot Building IKEA Furniture

A robot takes on a very small part of assembling a piece of IKEA furniture, comparing the task to the same human interaction.   There is still much work to be done.

Process Improvement and Building IKEA Furniture

In the APQC blog:   What building IKEA furniture can teach you about process improvement.  by Jess Scheer.   Good points.  Respect and evolve the process!

Amazon Launches Home Services

Amazon Home Services. Have done some work with Amazon buying sites.  Now they have launched an offering similar to Angies List.   On the surface of it, very nicely done.  I can see this integrated with product associated with services, and even their Echo system.  Available in only some cities at this time.

" .... a new and simple way to buy and schedule professional services such as furniture assembly, house cleaning, and lawn care directly on Amazon. We've handpicked the best service providers in your neighborhood and require all service pros to be background checked, insured, and licensed if applicable. Service pros compete for your business based on price, quality, and availability. If customers find a lower price for the same service and pro, we will match it. Pre-packaged services have upfront prices so you can add a service right to your cart. No special sign up or subscription is required. Your Amazon account is only charged after the service is completed. And best of all, all services are backed by Amazon’s Happiness Guarantee. If you’re not 100% satisfied, Amazon will make it right or give you a full refund. ... " 

IKEA to Sell Furniture that Charges Devices

At least with Android devices.    I am a long time follower of office design that embeds technology. Despite how that is seemingly becoming obsolete.    Was unaware of this line, but look forward to wireless clutter.   " .... IKEA Will Start Selling Qi Wireless Charging-Enabled Furniture In April 2015 ... " .  More on Qi Wireless.

Augmented Pixels Update

I am following a number of Augmented Reality companies.  Here are the latest updates from Augmented Pixels. in Odessa.

 " ... First of all, Large Silicon Valley Plug and Play Incubator invested in Augmented Pixels selected it to participate in Plug&Play Retail accelerator program. Full press release .... 

 ... Modus Matrix, a game changing application for real estate sales based on our platform AR House. The app was created for Harkus, strategic design agency, as a part of their strategic marketing for a Canadian builder Jayman Modus. More information, ... 

The app is currently available on iOS devices, but in a few days Android version will be released.
Thirdly, we are expending our global reach by partnering with a big Brazilian online retailer HomeIt. HomeIt will become our client and will be listed in our sales platform for furniture retailers ShowInRoom. .... 

 ... Further articles:  Augmented reality and football.  And Home Electronics Demonstration using Augmented reality.