IKEA, world famous for its affordable furniture and somewhat… complicated instructions for setting up couches, desks, and the like is soon to be world famous for its… pancakes?
That’s right. This isn’t the Swedish furniture giant’s first go around in the world of VR—it launched a kitchen design experience last year on the HTC Vive—but this is the first time users will be able to virtually flip pancakes inside of a virtual IKEA kitchen.
Don’t get too excited yet, though: for now, as part of a global test pilot, the VR kitchen experience is only being demoed at the IKEA Etobicoke store in Ontario, Canada. Until May 21st, visitors to the IKEA location can try out two different VR experiences. The first, IKEA VR Pancake Kitchen, is pretty self-explanatory. Designed to help you figure out what you want out of a kitchen, the experience lets you take a go at preparing the delicious go-to breakfast dish in a virtual kitchen set up.
The second experience, the VR Kitchen Visualizer, may be a lot less fun, but it could also be a lot more useful. It gives you the chance to step into a VR version of your real life kitchen that you’ve designed for yourself, giving you a lot more confidence in your final IKEA purchase.
“IKEA strives to be an innovative company and is exploring virtual reality as a tool to better meet with our customers. We know that this technology is developing fast and will play a major role in the future for our customers,” said IKEA Canada Head of Sales Rob Kelly. IKEA is still exploring the uses of virtual reality and has expressed desire to invest in new VR technology.
IKEA, pancakes, and a commitment to VR exploration? This deal could only get sweeter if the syrup was real.
