IS THAT new sofa looking a bit out of place where you put it? The days of endlessly shuffling furniture around to see which arrangement works best could soon be over, thanks to software that plans the layout for you. The Make It Home program takes virtual room design a step further than manual systems like the fitted-kitchen program available on furniture retailer IKEA’s website. Users of the IKEA program manually place cupboards, cookers and sink units from an on-screen library to see how they will fit into their kitchen. “We want to automatically generate a number of ideas about how people can best place their furniture,” says Sai-Kit Yeung of the University of California, Los Angeles, who was part of the team from UCLA and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology that developed Make It Home. See more: Watch the system in action The software treats a room as a container for furniture objects of known size, and which may have key relationships with each other.
For instance, a TV is a “first-tier object” that must be placed next to a second-tier object such as a Blu-ray player. Similarly, a dining table could be linked to a side table so that these items automatically stay together in all variations of the room layout. Users can also specify sight lines that require, for example, that a window or TV be visible from a certain couch or armchair. It is also possible to specify which items- a rug, say- can encroach on a pathway to a door, and which cannot. Make It Home takes all these constraints into account to create what Yeung calls a variety of different “liveable spaces”. There could be a ready market for software of this kind, should the team decide to commercialise it. Paul Kenney of IKEA in London say his firm’s software was downloaded 4 million times in 2010, a fourfold jump in popularity from the year before. Yeung expects movie set designers and video game developers, as well as householders, to find uses for the software.
“When a large amount of indoor arrangement is required, automatic software can save the designer a lot of time,” he says. “Householders, set designers and video game developers may all find uses for the software” The UCLA team plans to demonstrate Make It Home at the Siggraph computer graphics conference in Vancouver, Canada, in August. Designing stuff we love. Every day, here in Minneapolis. Find My Local StoreSkip to main content Furniture store's eatery used as makeshift singles club for senior lonely hearts for years We have been experiencing some problems with subscriber log-ins and apologise for the inconvenience caused. Until we resolve the issues, subscribers need not log in to access ST Digital articles. But a log-in is still required for our PDFs.Welcome to the ultimate guide to IKEA hacking and DIY at Unplggd, with over 100 articles devoted to all things IKEA. Anything and everything about IKEA that's been highlighted in these pages is carefully cataloged and categorized (sorta) for your pleasure and convenience.
Well maybe not *everything - man can only endure search for so long (in this case a couple of hours). We've got IKEA hacking, Ikea DIY, and even some normal IKEA pieces that we just found extraordinary. 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not from IKEA What's IKEA? it is nor desk, nor chair, Nor kitchen, nor dining, nor any other part Belonging to a home. O, be some other name! What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So IKEA would, were it not IKEA call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. IKEA, doff thy name, And for that name which is no part of thee Take all my money. IKEA Inspiration, Ideas, & Behind the Blog - IkeahackerRead about Jules, the woman behind Ikeahacker, as well as previewing the IKEA 2012 catalog and tech ideas to steal from the big book of Swedish love. IKEA Help Hotlines, Manuals, Assembly Tips, Helpful Websites, Apps, & Missing Parts IKEA Cord Control & Cable ManagementUse IKEA products and hangers to manage your unsightly cables and cords.
Ikea Storage Solutions: Angled Wall Shelving, Office Storage, Files, & PaperA fun and cheap solution from IKEA for putting shelving on angled walls and hanging files out in the open. IKEA Hacking & DIY: Workspaces & DesksA desk made out of a pallet, using cabinets to build a desk, fitting a USB hub into your desk, and a floating iMac desk. IKEA Hacking: Laptop StandsLook how many different IKEA products work as laptop stands! IKEA Hacking & DIY: Standing DesksFun custom standing desks for those who can't sit still. IKEA Hacking & DIY: Coffee Tables IKEA Hacking & DIY: EntertainmentEntertainment centers, media consoles, & TV cabinets IKEA GamingHacked remote & video game controller storage. IKEA StealthHiding computers & tech. IKEA Stealth: Hiding Radiators & HeatersHide unsightly heaters with IKEA kit. IKEA MakeoversWhat once was old is now new. IKEA Can Even Make FireMake fire with IKEA parts. IKEA LightingLamps, hacking, & DIY lighting.
IKEA Backlit SpacesBacklit workspaces and furniture. IKEA Makes MusicMusic studios, speakers, speaker stands, headphone stands, & turntable stands. IKEA In People's HomesTech Tours & miscellaneous fantastic IKEA setupsTake up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. When we assist a client in building a ‘fitter’ retail ecosystem, we continue to focus a lot of our attention on the physical expressions of a brand. While all components of an ecosystem, contribute to the overall success (or ‘fitness’) of a retail business, and we talk about the message a brand ‘portrays’ and customer ‘receives’, ultimately we are all still humans seeking to engage in a human-to-human dialogue. Therefore we must never forget the great emotional and loyal attachments gained through interactions with a brand on a physical level.
Increasingly, we see these physical expressions of brands, move away from the traditional formula of a standard pop-up or special one-off store with the goal of selling products. Many great ‘fit’ physical expressions instead choose to sell brand ethos, values or purpose, acknowledging the value and the increasing influence of consumer emotion on purchase behaviour. We see many great brands choose to create a physical environment that demonstrates the solution their product or service offered, can solve for the customer. Furniture retailer Ikea has an incredibly unique point-of-difference, which offers the retailer significant competitive advantage over other industry players. Ikea’s group president Anders Dahlyig once spoke of the company’s goal to ‘…be different, not just better…’ and Ikea has continued to play on this concept in all areas from the shopping experience, store design and layout, product quality; almost being predictive in their solution-solving products and attracting the best in retailing talent to work in its stores.
One major difference that Ikea continues to lead and innovate in is the desire to provide a ‘fun’, theatrical shopping experience, playing on the power of human emotion. Taking this focus of building on human-emotion around their products, plus their core brand ethos of ‘do-it-yourself’, Ikea have recently built their latest physical expression of their brand in the form of a pop-up restaurant called ‘The Dining Club’ in Shoreditch, East London. Guests of ‘The Dining Club’ work alongside chefs to prepare simple Scandinavian-themed dishes, whilst acting restaurant owner for the evening, by hosting their friends and family in a dining space curated with Ikea products. While there may still be the kitchen showrooms and a homewares shop as an addition to the space, the focus is on the food and the experience and human-emotion an Ikea environment creates. Visitors are allowed to bring up to 20 guests along to help prepare and taste the food, with a head chef on hand to offer advice or guidance.