Augmented Reality Is the Future of Furniture Shopping

In a darkened room in the back of a small furniture store just south of San Francisco International Airport, the couch in front of me keeps changing colors and patterns, from red to blue to beige to a gray, white, and green pattern. The couch is real — I can reach out and poke the cushions — but the psychedelic surface-shifting effect is created with augmented reality technology that projects fabric patterns onto the surface of the couch (which in reality is a boring shade of gray). This is ...