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When consumers head to Lowe’s in the future, they’ll have a better chance of mapping out their homes and making sure products they buy fit just right.
Through Lowe’s Vision, an app using Google’s 3-D smartphone platform Tango, users will be able to see how items like appliances and furniture will look inside their homes.
The app will not be launching until the 2016 holiday season, but the company has been developing its visualization capabilities through augmented and virtual reality tools for the past two years, according to Lowe’s Innovation Labs.
“Tango is a powerful new technology developed by Google that combines area learning, depth sensing and motion tracking to give devices the ability to see their environment in 3D,” says the Lowe’s Innovation Labs article.
The app is part of Lowe’s vision for customers to use technology to “design, build and enjoy their homes,” according to the company.
In addition to helping consumers see how furniture or appliances will look in the home, the app can also take accurate room measurements through augmented reality.
“Having those measurements allows you to search by the space,” says Kyle Nel, executive director of Lowe’s Innovation Labs, in an article from Fast Company. “For instance, if the space in your kitchen for your fridge is only a certain size, why would we show you all of the different fridges that don’t fit in that space?”
On top of launching the Lowe’s Vision app, the company will also be offering the Phab 2 Pro cellphone—which can use the Tango technology—at Lowe’s stores nationwide during the holiday season, according to the article from Fast Company.
“Since Lowe’s Vision relies on the Tango platform’s 3D orientation technology, it will only be available for Tango-enabled phones, starting with the Phab 2 Pro,” the Fast Company article says.
