Trash Augmented Reality

My municipality recently started collecting household organic waste. Since I cut a lot of vegetables, I like the idea of separating this waste at the source. So, I need an extra trash can to my hold peels, eggshells and teabags.

How do I pick a trash can with the perfect capacity? I have an idea of the volume I need. But the measurements of bins in web shops do not give me a sense of scale. Neither do the often-sterile product photos. Is 10 liters enough? Or do I need 18 liters? What if I could see the products, at scale, in my home before I buy? Of course, you already can, with Augmented Reality (AR).

A trash can is a large object and needs to fit well. Both physically and aesthetically. Picking the right size when buying online is important if you want to reduce returns. Since I already own a few trash cans from simplehuman, I looked on their website but did not find an AR option.

The one-day prototype

I decided to make a quick prototype of an AR web-app for four sizes of their butterfly trash can. This is what I did:

• Create 3D models of the products
• Some file-format magic to make the 3D models compatible with iOS (ARKit) and Android (ARCore)
• Write a small web-app for tablet and mobile use

The result is a web app which shows you four different trash cans in AR. Check it out here: http://trash-ar.klaasnienhuis.nl.

Four models are a nice start for a demo, but when you already have 3D models, chances are that much of this process can be automated. If you are interested to discover how you can leverage AR for your brand: get in touch! I work with a team of specialists and we craft high quality 3D web apps.