Yu-Chun Huang Wins Design Award for AR/VR Project

Remodeling a home can be overwhelming, especially when selecting tiles, paint, and furniture. But what if one could see what the finished space would really look like beforehand?

Thanks to a new app developed by Computer Science Lecturer Yu-Chun Huang, users can preview changes virtually using an AR/VR headset that seamlessly overlays virtual materials onto physical spaces, allowing users to customize walls, experiment with different tile and paint finishes, and even set walls as transparent to preview how changes integrate into their surroundings—all through intuitive hand gestures.

Huang's Augmented Reality Interior Design project won the 2025 iF Design Impact Award. Presented by the iF International Forum Design GmbH for over 70 years, the award recognizes outstanding achievements in product design.

"Existing interior design tools confine users to 2D screens or virtual environments, making it difficult to accurately visualize design choices at a real-life scale," says Huang. "ARID eliminates these barriers by allowing users to continuously modify their designs within their actual physical environment, offering a more immersive and intuitive experience without relying solely on imagination or screen-based simulations."

For instance, users can explore how natural ambient sunlight interacts with various finishes or see how new materials would complement an antique wall they intend to preserve. Rather than committing to a full-scale remodel, says Huang, ARID enables users to experiment with multiple design possibilities within their existing environment, fostering a more thoughtful and informed approach to interior design.

What's more, she says, by reducing material waste through elimination of physical samples, ARID makes home remodeling more efficient, cost-effective, and eco-friendly.

Currently, ARID focuses on bathroom interior design, but future versions will expand to cover entire house interior designs.

Huang, who has a PhD in architecture and a background in digital design, focuses on integrating computational technologies—including CAD, VR, AR, TUIs, and brain-computer interfaces (BCI)—into design-related fields, particularly in spatial and architectural contexts. She has been teaching Digital Tangible User Interfaces course, which explores tangible user interfaces (TUIs) to enhance interactions between the physical and digital worlds since Spring 2024. 

The ARID project was initiated in the course, in collaboration with Zhoucai Ni '24, who contributed to a portion of the code responsible for selecting walls within the AR environment and used his experience in filmmaking to enhance the project's video presentation.

"I have always believed that digital technology exists to enhance our daily lives—not to create unnecessary complexity," says Huang. Rather than pursuing novel or extravagant ways to interact with the virtual world, we should focus on how technology can enable more natural and seamless interactions between people and their environments, both digital and physical, she says.

"Winning the iF Design Award is a meaningful recognition of this vision," says Huang. "It affirms the impact of an interdisciplinary approach and highlights ARID's potential to transform the way we engage with our surroundings in a more intuitive, efficient, and sustainable manner."