Gadgetory

we all know the feeling of walking up and down aisles trying to find that one last thing on our list so Lowe's is rolling out to new tech experiences to help make shopping and home improvements a little bit easier the first is an app to navigate and find items in the store with computer vision using digital maps of each store the app actually works out the quickest way to get to the items on your list and then the fastest way to check out it's powered by Google's tango technology where special cameras sense depth in 3d this means tango can measure objects map a room and see virtual things in the real world it's already been used in museums for augmented reality tours in store a yellow overlay shows the path to the next item on your list it's straightforward and the cameras didn't get confused when I quickly turned around or put the phone down to grab an item the only issue is that there's just one tango phone right now the Lenovo fab 2 Pro more devices are coming later this year but in the meantime you can borrow a phone in store to try it out it's launching in April at two US stores in Sunnyvale California and Lynwood Washington if real world shopping isn't enough try home improvements in our virtual roles this VR experience on the HTC vive walks you step-by-step through projects like retiling a bathroom who would have thought that home DIY and tiling would be a relaxing process haptic feedback from controllers and visual indicators tell you where you're going right or wrong before you DIY for real oh well okay Lowe's is trialing it in a few stores to start with but eventually the VR app will be available to download so you can practice skills at home this is what happens when you're looking at your phone screen and nobody knows