Our Future Baby takes couples through a journey to discover their future family. By participating in this immersive experience, couples and expectant parents experience their soon-to-be-born baby.

Through Tencent’s AI imaging technology, we let couples and expectant parents experience how their baby could look like. We used artificial intelligence to combine both parents’ faces and predict the face of their future baby. The technology is so intelligent, it could predict the baby’s face, depicting the different stages of growth. Then, we fill the showroom with pictures of the baby.

The showroom consists of a living room, a bedroom, and a baby room. When visitors leave the showroom, they could opt to receive the baby's photos by scanning a QR code. That will also generate digital images of the baby which they could print or share with others.

We created an algorithm that is especially used to predict the final outcome of what the baby looks like. First, we scanned the faces of couples and expectant parents. We feed these data into our neural networks. Through facial key point detection, facial feature point localization and face merging technology, we are able to construct an impression of the baby’s face that is a combination of both parents’.

The AI system can even predict the face of the baby during different stages of growth.

Then, in real-time, the information is fed into e-photo frames that are strategically placed at the IKEA showroom, for these couples and expectant parents to ‘discover’.

Our Future Baby had more than 30,000 participants during the campaign period.

The number of visitors to IKEA Sanyuanqiao branch increased by 25% compared to the year before.

The project was reported by more than 100 media outlets, and that is not even including sharings on social media.

Most importantly, IKEA and Tencent managed to inspire thousands of people to make room for life through the power of innovation and technology.

Our Future Baby compiles data from sets of couples and expectant parents using facial recognition technology. Through artificial intelligence, both parents’ faces are combined and used to predict the face of their future baby. The technology is so intelligent, it could predict the baby’s face, depicting the different stages of growth.

We present this data visualization through an interactive showroom which couples can visit. We let them explore the IKEA showroom as if it is their own house, and let them discover portraits of their future baby. The experience is both beautiful and touching.

Our Future Baby is an activation event held at the IKEA showroom in Beijing. To participate, couples and expectant parents must first scan their faces at the entrance of the showroom.

The data, gleaned from the faces of the couples are then fed to Tencent’s AI neural networks. The neural networks then use facial key-point detection, facial feature point localization and face-merging technology to create an impression of their baby. The neural networks can even predict the face of the baby at different stages of growth.

Then, in real-time, the information is fed into e-photo frames that are strategically placed at the IKEA showroom, for these couples and expectant parents to ‘discover’.

IKEA China has a mission to make great living spaces for China. They wanted to inspire people to create comfortable living spaces that all could enjoy.

For this campaign, IKEA has defined the target to be those that are about to get married or the newly-wed. That’s because, in China, the cultural norm is for those that are about to get married to own an apartment; all ready to start their own families.

Therefore, the mission of them is to inspire people to make room for life by attracting them to come and visit the IKEA showroom.

IKEA collaborated with Tencent for this project.