Step by step: App shows how to put together complex LEGO or IKEA kits

Thick, sometimes confusing manuals for building LEGO kits, IKEA furniture, or any product that requires assembly could eventually be replaced or augmented with a version of a step-by-step augmented reality assembly app developed by Wei Yan, Texas A&M University professor of architecture.

Yan demonstrated his app’s capabilities by creating a user-friendly program instructing a user to build a moderately complex LEGO project, Paris’ iconic Arc de Triomphe, without a printed instruction manual. 

Using a tablet screen to depict the LEGO construction area, the app shows a 3D rendering of which brick to use next, and where it needs to be placed. The process is repeated until the completion of the structure.

Yan’s idea could apply to any number of assembly-related tasks.

“Other applications could include anything requiring assembly, manufacturing, or construction, training for jobs in these fields, and a wide variety of do-it-yourself projects,” said Yan.

His idea attracted the attention of the Innovation Awards at South by Southwest (SXSW), the giant Austin festival that celebrates the convergence of the interactive, film and music industries.

Yan’s app, BRICKxAR, was recognized as an alternate in the XR category of the Innovation Awards, which celebrate the most exciting tech developments in the digitally connected world by honoring breakthroughs in augmented, virtual and mixed reality technology.  

The app has also led to a research collaboration between Yan and Dezhen Song, professor of computer science and engineering, who are studying how to enhance learning of creativity and science, technology, engineering and mathematics with an augmented reality-based making and gaming approach.