Project Showroom: Realism is in the eye of the beholder

Project Showroom is a technology preview of a service for home furnishing suppliers to enable their customers to visualize their products in real-life room settings. It is based on computer renderings that look like photographs. It's our version of kitchen and bathroom design software provided using a software as a service model. You don't install anything. You just visit a web site.

Thanks for the feedback on Life Imitates Art. We got wonderful comments. Here's some of what you said:

• The bottle of hand soap in the real image is partially full. All containers in the computer image look to be new or full.

• The real image has a receptacle on the wall. There are none to be seen anywhere in the computer model.

• The real image has visible caulk at the edge of the counter top and back splash. Manufacturers want scenes to look as nice as possible - not necessarily as real as possible, so it is unlikely that Project Showroom would ever model caulk.

• The towels in the real image look more naturally folded,

• The computer image had much colder lighting.

• The toothbrushes in the first image make one feel that it is real.

• The light source in the first image is more universal and fills the area more. The computer image's light source is more concentrated.

• There is a "spot" in the drywall under the counter in the real image. That actually covers a plumbing cleanout.

• In the computer image, the counter-top edge shadow falls off too consistently as it goes down to the floor, and the intensity of the shadow on the floor would not be the same as the one on the wall.

• The scale of the stone/quartz surfacing is a bit large in the computer model. Most counter-top products, natural or artificial, have smaller particulates.

• The real image has two different types of light sources - natural and incandescent. You can see the color of the light change from the top to the bottom.

• In the computer model, there’s something a bit artificial looking where the back-splash meets the mirror.

• There is no toe kick in the computer model and the base molding cuts into the cabinet door.

• There would most likely be a spacer between the end cabinet and the wall, or at least a little bit of space in the base unit. In the rendering, the door seems to touch the wall.

• The real image has the camera at head height. The image from the computer model uses a wide angle lens.

Indeed the first image was a photograph and the second was a rendering of a computer model. As we move forward, we can incorporate this feedback into the Project Showroom experience. I guess the ultimate would be a wadded up towel on the floor, toothpaste in the sink, and a half-empty bottle of soap.

Learning from our users is alive in the lab.