4th November 2016 | IN DESIGN TECHNOLOGY | BY SBID ShareTweetPinterestLinkedInThe concept of virtual reality in the field of interior design is by no means new. For years those in the industry have been using apps and systems with which customers can see what a specific piece of furniture would look like in their own home. The concept was pretty simple; all you needed to do was snap a picture of the area to be decorated, upload it to the app and you could instantly see how the living room would look with the new sofa the customer was considering. As much as these apps can be very handy at keeping the most severe cases of buyer’s remorse at bay, they also paved the way for the more high tech systems that are now making their way to the industry. Forget about just marvelling at the living room’s new sofa on a screen; instead imagine walking through a newly decorated house without leaving your desk or being able to furnish a home with a click of a mouse. Virtual reality interfaces are a natural method for presenting computer-based design by merging graphics with a view of the real world. Users interactively control their local view, try out design options, and communicate design proposals. If you’ve ever stood in a home store, struggling to combine your interior design choices with hastily scrawled floor plan measurements, you’ll have lamented the fact that there is no easy way to pick and choose home decor items that would fit perfectly in your house. Virtual reality software now makes it possible to bring home plans to life in 3D designs. You can be in complete control of creating blueprints that match the home, allowing you to add realistic flooring, paint, wallpaper, appliances and furniture. Interior design professionals can now transform a space without shelling out for sample pieces. The virtual reality software and apps are becoming more sophisticated by the day, and as the technology develops, they become more and more available. We can already download some apps for free which allow us to choose interior and exterior items from comprehensive catalogues in order to plan and furnish a space. So, whether you buy into the idea of virtual reality or not, now may the time to invest in it. The move to the mainstream has begun. Katja Knox – Editorial Account Manager Barbour Product Search www.barbourproductsearch.info/