Besides AR, VR, MR, Have You Heard About The DR

In the past few months, as companies such as apple ARKit and Google ARCore introduced a new AR platform, including ikea, Wayfair and Anthropologie retailers have introduced based on ARKit driven applications, for the consumers to accept the AR as a viable retail technology opened the door.

But overall, the early AR shopping application still has a lot to look forward to. Of course, using AR technology can be useful to put new chairs, tables, and artwork in a room. But unless you start with an empty room, existing physical objects (such as some furniture or objects) can interfere with your experience and feelings.

But using weaken the Reality (Diminished Reality, DR) technology is expected to change that. With DR, the user can delete unwanted from their physical environment, disabled objects, to obtain a more realistic perspective, to learn in their living environment, those items are the most suitable.

So what is DR, and what does it mean for retail and the future?

Although the concept is not new, DR is still relatively unknown. Simply put, DR is a concept that is relative to AR. AR allows you to enhance or add virtual content to your perception of the physical world. In contrast, DR allows you to delete some entities that are captured on a tablet or phone camera.

More likely, you're no stranger to similar situations. For example, in the post-editing of the film, it is usually required to remove the wires and suspenders that the actors wear during filming stunts or action scenes. This eliminates the visual "noise" and allows viewers to watch video without minutes.

Why do retailers need DR to maximize the use of AR?

This is the most interesting place. Combining DR with AR will further blur the boundaries between the real world and the adjusted world, giving users a whole new experience.

To be sure, the early adopters of ARKit, such as Wayfair, ikea and Anthropologie, did see AR's impact on the industry without the use of DR technology. But when the novelty of AR fades away, interest diminishes. For consumers, there's no such thing as "accommodation". They would want to see what the furniture really was like in the home, rather than simply piling it on top of a pile of clutter.

Now, if you want to achieve this requirement, you need to remove these impurities in person, free space, and then use the AR application in the place you want to try the furniture, so as to get closer to the actual effect. This is where DR can come into play. With DR, you can delete the "clutter" from your phone or tablet screen, and then put what you want.

Take a look at this map below to see what the "DR" experience is, especially when buying household items.

But it's not just about removing objects. As you can see in the diagram above, DR also is improving, it can identify, when you put sundry "removed", according to the characteristics of the objects around the floor or wall, surface of the extra space for automatic filling, rather than leaving a huge black hole or outline. While this technique isn't particularly perfect, on some DR platforms, you can even replicate some of the intricate patterns on the carpet or fill the walls with bricks.

DR is not far away. We expect that in the next 12 to 18 months, people will see the use of DR in AR shopping scenarios, as the existing AR applications will be updated to integrate the technology. More retailers will follow suit.

For AR, the sense of existence is very important.

Although on ARKit platform developed by the application can offer users powerful visual experience, but the AR technology alone cannot create a flawless sense, for the future of retail customer experience. DR is a complementary technology to AR, which can greatly enhance the existence and usefulness of AR.