IKEA launches virtual reality shopping

Swedish retail giant IKEA has embraced the world of virtual reality (VR), with the launch of its Virtual Reality Kitchen, IKEA VR Experience in a bid to transform the way people shopped.

"Australians are known for embracing the latest technology and innovations, so virtual reality has the potential to transform the way people interact with our products in the home", Tim Prevade, range manager for IKEA Australia said, zdnet.com reported. "We look forward to hearing our customers' feedback on the experience as we continue to explore this space in the future."

The Swedish giant had taken VR a step further, giving viewers the ability to change the colour of furnishings, as also to shrink themselves down in order to move around the space.

According to IKEA it had been exploring various new technologies for the last few years, and had trialed a number of digital tools before opting for VR as one of the ways to move forward.

Also today, the Australian Museum in Sydney, in conjunction with Samsung, launched two VR documentaries showcasing the technology of London-based Alchemy VR as also the distinguishable voice of David Attenborough.

For the first time outside the UK, David Attenborough's First Life VR and Great Barrier Reef Dive VR offered Samsung Gear VR wearers a 360 degree tour of the first creatures that inhabited the earth and a tour of Australia's Great Barrier Reef respectively.

IKEA had partnered with HTC and gaming company Steam to launch a pilot virtual reality kitchen experience for the Vive.

With IKEA VR Experience users would be able to design their own kitchens by accessing one of three real-world Ikea kitchen designs.

Users would surely not be able to move about the kitchen and test out various Ikea furniture ideas that would overlap over a real kitchen, but they would still be able to customise the default kitchens inside VR. For the time being, they would be able to change colours and adjust their viewing height so that they experienced the kitchen set up from the height of a child.