Augmenting reality in your environment

Recently, the start-up raised Rs 3.9 crore from Ideaspring Capital

Next time you are buying a sofa online, you could use augmented reality (AR) to see how it would look, fit in, or gel with other furniture in the living room. Enabling it and many more possibilities is Bengaluru-based marker-less AR platform Whodat Tech, which raised $600,000 (Rs 3.9 crore) from Ideaspring Capital. 

AR allows you to add digital content to a real-life setting. Whodat allows you to place digital content in any indoor environment — home decor, cars, or characters — using SLAM or simultaneous localisation and mapping, the underlying technology Whodat uses. 

Consider, for instance, how it aids online sales of furniture. 

A customer buying furniture online would browse three to four images of a product, check the price and then buy it. An AR visualisation, which uses the camera of your phone or some other device, would show the buyer how the furniture would look in his living room, how it fits in and sits with other furniture in the room. 

‘‘This reassures the buyer, saves cost for the seller and improves sales,” says Sriram Ganesh, co-founder of Whodat. 

The market is big. At a recent meet, Facebook announced how SLAM would play a pivotal role in its AR push. Facebook's approach is built around cameras in phones, which brings AR within the reach of anyone. This also opens up a huge opportunity to create interesting apps, say experts.

Its product is deployed in retail and real estate. Next, it plans to target social media, gaming and automotive. Revenues come from monthly subscription or a one-time licence fee.