ARID—An Augmented Reality Mobile Application for Interior Design

Abstract

Interior design is important for the interior of a space to achieve a polished and more aesthetically pleasing environment. Engaging the services of an interior designer can be costly. Therefore, individuals who are not able to engage an interior designer tend to design their room or space by visiting furniture showrooms and social media sites for design ideas. However, individuals who lack experience in interior design might find it difficult to visualize the overall feel and look of the space and may lack the skills to estimate the dimensions of the space. Augmented-reality (AR)-enabled interior design applications offer the potential for individuals to design their room or space by enabling individuals to visualize and estimate the dimensions of the room or space. Although there are several AR-enabled applications for interior design, some limitations exist. As such, this research aims to develop a collaborative AR-enabled application for interior design (ARID) that overcomes the limitations of existing applications. Rapid Application Development Methodology (RAD) was used to develop the proposed AR-enabled application for interior design. The resulting ARID application for interior design overcomes the limitations of existing applications by allowing the user to view the furniture on both horizontal and vertical planes, change the wall and floor color, and enable multiple users to collaborate when designing the room or space. In addition, the fundamental features of allowing the users to select furniture and decoration from a menu of items and previewing the furniture or decoration for the room or space using AR were also developed. Feedback gathered from user acceptance tests revealed that the ARID application was easy to use and beneficial for individuals when designing their rooms or space. The ARID application benefits the field of interior design by overcoming the limitations of existing interior design applications and enables individuals to visualize the room or space they wish to design.