We said goodbye to old school calculators quite a while ago. The tape measure may be on the chopping block next.
SmartPicture Technologies, an Austin software imaging company, is launching a new augmented reality app for the iPhone called PLNAR. Using new technologies in iOS 11 and the Apple ARKit the tech giant gave approved developers in June, the app allows you to quickly measure the dimensions of any room using your phone's camera.
It might not sound as sexy as the IKEA Space app that uses augmented reality to show you what furniture would look like in your home. PLNAR takes a more utilitarian and pragmatic approach that's geared toward flooring, carpet and, once a vertical measuring update is added, window companies.
Investors are showing interest. SmartPicture Technologies, founded in 2012, raised $1.6 million in new funding in August.
I stopped by SmartPicture's office in downtown Austin ahead of the Apple launch to see how it works and find out how CEO Andy Greff plans to make the app stand out in a crowded field.
"We've always been focused on automating that traditional in-home measurement process, making it super easy for people to do it themselves," he told me.
Previously, that meant using computer vision-based software that would require you to print out a piece of paper with key data on it that gave the software a reference point. The paper targets are scattered about the office. That garnered 20-plus customers using it for remodeling, interior design and insurance claims.
But Apple's ARKit, released in June, gave developers a way to avoid some of the painstaking lighting and dimensional problems that complicate AR apps.
"It changed the game for us," Greff said.
Once SmartPicture developers had a product to show, Greff shot a quick video of how it worked in their office, quickly measuring the dimensions of long walls and short boards. The YouTube snippit took off, getting 130K-plus views and catching the eye of tech bloggers.
It's accuracy is beyond 95 percent, he said, which is better than a lot of us would be with a professional measuring tape. And it's more versatile than laser measuring devices, which typically only measures wall-to-wall and you have to write down the dimensions. PLNAR tracks all the measurements and logs them so you can quickly upload the data to the cloud and your team can get to work.
"This is a very practical use of AR," he acknowledged. "Everything else is kind of gimmicky and gamey. I love games. But this is something for the enterprise and for the homeowner."
The app has potential use across a variety of high-value sectors -- like flooring, carpeting, designers and insurance agents who need to quickly measure how much of a room has been damaged by flooding or fire. And that can be especially helpful for insurance agents who have to log the details of damage from big storms -- a process that can involve a lot of data entry and associated transcription errors.
"They have to see all this tragedy and all the mess happening and then go home at night on their computer and redraw a 3D model," he said. "This does it all for you -- steps one, two and three are all digitized for you."
