Arid AR Application

With a background in architecture, I’ve seen firsthand how challenging it is for people to make material decisions during the remodeling process. Many clients struggle to visualize the final outcome—whether it’s choosing paint colors, tiles, or other surface finishes. The traditional process often relies heavily on imagination or small material samples that don’t convey the full spatial effect.Initially, I was frustrated by how limited existing tools were, especially traditional VR headsets that only offer a one-way immersive experience, isolating users from their real-world environment. However, with the emergence of devices like the Oculus Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro, I saw a major shift—these tools now support blending virtual elements into the real world through passthrough AR.That’s when the idea for ARID started to take shape. I thought: what if we could build a system that allows people to apply virtual materials directly onto their existing walls and see the result in real time? Instead of relying solely on imagination, users could evaluate multiple design options in their actual space, leading to more confident and informed decisions.

While we did not explicitly simulate how different materials respond to natural lighting conditions through advanced rendering techniques, we found that spatial openness and visual continuity played a critical role in shaping users’ perception of light. One key feature in ARID is the see-through wall toggle, which allows users to virtually “cut open” walls—such as bathroom partitions—and reveal external openings like windows.When users enable this feature and align it with real-world window positions, natural light from the actual environment blends with the AR overlay. This means users can experience different lighting atmospheres depending on the time of day and sun orientation, even without manually adjusting any lighting parameters in the system. The resulting effect provides a dynamic and context-aware experience, helping users intuitively sense how the space would feel with different levels of natural exposure.In essence, rather than directly simulating light-material interaction, we enabled a design interaction that lets natural light become part of the AR experience—making it a subtle yet powerful tool for visualizing atmosphere and spatial quality.

Interestingly, precise room measurement and tile calculation were not the most challenging aspects of developing the ARID application. These functions were clearly defined from the start, and we had the tools and methods to achieve them accurately. What proved far more difficult—and crucial—was designing an intuitive user interface that allows users to naturally interact with the system, especially when selecting and applying materials to walls.In most traditional digital products, UI design is constrained to small screens, such as smartphones or tablets. Designers must carefully arrange all the information and icons within a 10-inch display. However, in the VR/AR environment, the concept of UI shifts dramatically. The entire surrounding space becomes part of the interface, and this opens up both opportunities and new complexities.In ARID, we wanted users to feel truly immersed in the space, blending physical and virtual environments. To support this, we avoided using traditional floating windows or flat menus. Instead, we attached the material selection UI to the user’s left hand, allowing them to use tap gestures with the right hand to intuitively browse and apply materials. This interaction simulates the feeling of holding a physical material sample in your hand and directly applying it to a surface—just like how people evaluate tiles or paint in real life.