The Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts (IDIA Lab) at Ball State University is a cluster of seven labs under one centralized administration. The labs consist of the IDIA Lab, Human Computer Interaction Lab (HCI Lab), the Simulation Lab (Sim Lab), the virtual reality immersive theater (CAVE Lab), the Dome Lab (FullDome media production), ARCH Lab and the Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL).
These centralized cluster of labs explore the intersection between the arts, science, and humanities with technology. Scholarly, creative, and pedagogical projects investigate virtual reality, human computer interface (HCI), augmented reality, mobile apps, visualization, and 3D simulation. This lab collective is a collaborative design studio that was funded through the Eli Lilly Endowment’s Digital Media Initiative as part of a $40 million dollar grant to the University. The labs’ faculty, staff and students develop projects in partnership with international clients in this innovative studio initiative
investigating the forefront of emergent design and learning.
IDIA Lab works primarily in creating virtual worlds, apps, augmented reality, virtual reality, and simulations for a host of clients and disciplines, Dome Lab develops spherical immersive content for planetaria and cycloramas in partnership with BSU Physics and Astronomy. College of Architecture and Planning’s Fab Lab provides facilities for research and production in a host of 3d fabrication technologies including 3D PLA printing, resin printing, powder printing laser cutting, robotic arm milling and CNC milling. Arch Lab supports special research projects in visualization and immersive virtual reality. The HCI lab researches and designs both hardware and software custom electronics solutions for interactive museum projects and installations. The Sim Lab provides facilities that support the creation of animation and immersive virtual reality experiences. Our Digital Scholarship Lab is an internal resource leveraging digital methodologies for research and scholarship across disciplines – in collaboration with the Office of the Provost
Staffing consists of one director, Prof. John Fillwalk, seven professional staff, 2-3 graduate research assistants and 2-3 undergraduate research assistants. Our staff consists of artists, designers, 3D modelers and animators, architects, a drone pilot, programmers, and a composer. The labs sponsor competitive research fellowships to support external and internal colleagues. The labs are self-sustaining and work with principal investigators from across the globe in developing innovate research solutions across disciplines. Clients, sponsors and partners have included: the Department of the Interior, the History Channel, the Mellon Foundation, the National Science Foundation, Houston Planetarium, Evans and Sutherland, the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory at University of Indiana, the Seattle Children’s Hospital, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Kings College, UCLA, British Broadcasting Company, Trinity College, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, Technische Universität Dortmund, IBM, Intel, Avatar Reality, Blue Planet Software.
Interactive Tour of IDIA Lab Facilities
To virtually tour the IDIA Lab facilities, click the location icon in the upper right corner of the image below. From there you can choose any of the five labs, specific positions, and move around through them by selecting the white circles. Use your mouse to look around.
IDIA Lab Facilities
