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The Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts (IDIA Lab) at Ball State University explores the intersection between the arts, sciences, and humanities using a broad range of technologies. Founded in 2005, IDIA Lab has been designing scholarly, creative, teaching and learning projects that investigate virtual reality, human computer interface (HCI), augmented reality, mobile apps, interactive artworks, immersive environments, head mounted display, visualization and 3D simulation. The IDIA Lab studios were initially incubated through the Eli Lilly Endowment’s Digital Media Initiative as part of two generous grants to the University. IDIA Lab’s research facilities include five distinct labs – IDIA Lab, CAVE Lab, DOME Lab, HCI Lab, and SIM Lab – all working in concert with tour partner, the Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL). The labs’ faculty, staff and students develop projects in collaboration with a cohort of international clients in this innovative initiative that investigates the forefront of emergent design, expression and learning.

Old Planetarium + Cutting Edge Studio

OLD PLANETARIUM REVAMPED INTO CUTTING-EDGE STUDIO Months after the opening of the Charles W. Brown Planetarium, Ball State has found a new use for its almost 50-year-old predecessor. The dome-shaped room in the basement of the Cooper Science Complex has become a production facility dedicated to developing new shows for planetariums nationwide. “This is an […]

Dr. Bernard Frischer Lecture: Rome Reborn: 3D Reconstructions as Tools for Discovery

Bernard Frischer is a digital archaeologist who writes about virtual heritage, Classics, and the survival of the classical world. He received his Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Heidelberg. He followed his doctoral work in Germany with a two-year postdoc at the American Academy in Rome, where he studied Roman topography and archaeology. Dr. […]

NATIONAL AWARD: VIRTUAL ESCAPE ROOM

The BSU College of Health and CAP’s IDIA Lab were honored with a national award for their collaborative virtual escape room project. The serious game, “The Case of the Kidnapped Healthcare Professionals: Virtual Escape Room” was selected to receive the 2023 Creativity in Practice and Education Award from the National Academies of Practice (NAP). BSU’s […]

Flickr Gettr: IDIA performs at the International Annual Science and Technology Festival in India

John Fillwalk and Jesse Allison travelled to Mumbai, India for the International Annual Science and Technology Festival, January 22-24, to exhibit the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts’ (IDIA) “Flickr Getter” installation. The festival, the largest of its kind in Asia, hosted more than 65,000 attendees. In addition to exhibitions such as “Flickr Getter”, the festival […]

Smithsonian and National Park Service Presentations

Vice-President of Information Technology, Phil Repp and IDIA Lab Director, John Fillwalk traveled to Washington, D.C. to present Ball State projects in electronic field trips, virtual worlds and hybrid design to several federal organizations. Meetings included a presentation at the Smithsonian Institution Building on the National Mall to representatives from all the Smithsonian Museums and […]

Newton’s Cenotaph in VR

Appeared in Engadget, Variety and Motherboard Linden Lab lifted the veil on Sansar, the long awaited followup to Second Life, allowing the general public to explore VR environments that beta-testers have been creating for the platform. Among the usual suspects of ritzy nightclubs and elven cities is something unexpected. Over the summer, a group of […]

VIRTUAL COURTROOM SIMULATOR

IDIA is collaborating with BSU’s Brandy and Greg Rocheleau from the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology on the production of a Virtual Courtroom. The project, funded by BSU’s Women of Beneficence, is a program designed to allow students in designated criminal justice classrooms to participate in courtroom simulations through the use of avatars to […]

RUTGERS HEALTHCARE SIMULATION

IDIA is designing an interactive virtual training simulator for Rutgers University’s School of Health Professions. The project immerses students within TeamSTEPPS, Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety. Developed by AHRQ, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, TeamSTEPPS is an interprofessional communication framework providing interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork tools aimed at […]

ChromaChord: A Virtual Musical Instrument

ChromaChord: A Virtual Musical Instrument IDIA Lab: Ball State University ChromaChord utilizes a combination of the Oculus Rift headset and an attached Leap Motion controller to create an immersive 3D VMI environment. The Oculus Rift provides a three-paneled visual interface, through Unity, that allows the users to access different component windows of the instrument […]

GIS PAPER: DEEP MAPPING

BSU’s James Connolly, Director, Center for Middletown Studies and John Fillwalk, Director, IDIA Lab presented their joint paper at the 30th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems in Seattle, WA. This paper explored innovations in visualizing data in immersive 3D environments associated with the newly launched Deep Mapping Middletown project. Lead […]

Virtual Companion: Indianapolis

Virtual Monument Circle is a mobile application that uses historic photographs and maps of downtown Indianapolis, IN to create an immersive interpretation of various historic phases of the city center. This project is a prototype for a larger potential city-wide endeavor bringing to life significant neighborhoods and sites within the city. It is developed as […]

Virtual Companion: Columbus

IDIA Lab – in collaboration with BSU Assistant Professor of Architecture, Kristin Barry – has designed the cultural heritage mobile application, Virtual Columbus Experience – allowing users to virtually tour the rich architectural history of Columbus, Indiana. This locative mobile app was produced with fellowship support of Ball State University’s Digital Scholarship Lab. Though a […]

Sinespace Gallery Designer

IDIA Lab has created a virtual gallery design system in partnership with virtual world creator Sinespace. Sinespace, a multi-user virtual world platform based in the UK, contacted IDIA to design this system for their new virtual environment. The Gallery Designer isan easy to use system to dynamically create gallery and museum exhibitions on the fly […]

Wright Brothers Workshop

IDIA Lab has created a virtual simulation of the Wright Brothers bicycle shop in Dayton, OH for the HTC Vive headset and SteamVR. The environment is a recreation of the Wright Cycle Company, on South Williams Street in Dayton was built in 1886 and is a US National Historic Landmark and on the National Register […]

EVAC+ Virtual Disaster Simulator

IDIA Lab partnered with physicians at the Seattle Children’s Hospital to develop a virtual simulator to train staff in the case of various disasters. The EVAC+ Virtual Disaster Simulator leverages virtual reality to train health care providers to react quickly and effectively to unexpected events that threaten patient safety. It was developed after pilot live simulations, user […]

Virtual World Heritage Ohio

Ball State University and Ohio History Council Sponsored by the Office of Digital Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities The public will be able to explore the prehistoric Newark Earthworks in Ohio the way they appeared 2,000 years ago. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Office of Digital Humanities, this interactive 3D simulation […]

Apollo 11 VR on Steam

Apollo 11 VR is a first person experience of the interior of the 1969 Command Module. Explore the cockpit firsthand in an authentic model of the interior based on scans from the Smithsonian. This is the 50th anniversary of the historic landing where Buzz Aldrin and Neal Armstrong walked on the surface of the moon […]

ATK Procedural Audio Library

ATK (Audio Tool Kit) is a demo of ATK-Sharp, a procedural audio generation library. ATK contains four example sound scripts that developers can use as a reference to script their own custom sounds. Download now from the Unity Asset Store! Why use procedural audio? Using procedurally-generated audio instead of pre-made audio files has two main benefits: 1. Build […]

BALL STATE UNIVERSITY AND TU DORTMUND EXCHANGE PROGRAM IN INTERMEDIA ART

Ball State University and the Technische Universität Dortmund have partnered in creating an international exchange program for students studying the design and technology of Intermedia artforms. Ball State University and the Technische Universität Dortmund have partnered in creating an international exchange program for students studying the design and technology of Intermedia artforms. This program will […]

IDIA Lab Featured on WTHR News for Virtual Reality research

The future of home entertainment is taking a giant step forward into the world of virtual reality. More devices are hitting the market that transform the way we look at the world around us, and a group of developers at Ball State is on the cutting edge. It’s something we experienced first-hand at Ball State […]

Virtual Companion

Temple of Artemis

Virtual Stonehenge

SIMviolin

Virtual Roman Pantheon

Interactive Airport Oasis Project

Virtual Meridian of Augustus

ChromaChord

3D Point Cloud Laser Scanning

Intermedia Artist Timeline