Academic

The IDIA offers curriculum in partnership with the Department of Art and the School of Music in the College of Fine Arts; and the Department of Architecture in the College of Architecture and Planning at Ball State University. IDIA immersive learning and emerging media experiences attract students from all disciplines to design and produce a host of interactive digital projects. Undergraduate and graduate curriculum in new media are available in Art, Music and Architecture. Several new programs are also in development.

Curriculum and Facilities

The IDIA Immersive Seminar that involves students from across campus to work on innovative projects. Check out our recent news for descriptions of current and ongoing projects.

Immersion Projects

Museum Scanning Project

The IDIA Seminar’s current project focuses on virtually recreating the original settings of various sculptures found throughout the Ball State University Museum of Art. The project focused on scanning five different sculptures using a 3D laser scanner. This project has allowed Ball State students to get involved with 3D scanning by learning the method, techniques […]

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NURSING INTERVIEW SIMULATOR

IDIA, in partnership with the BSU School of Nursing, developed and launched a new Nursing Interview Simulator in the virtual world of Blue Mars. Blue Mars is a next generation and high fidelity virtual world that uses the CryEngine game engine. Student nurses practice interviews via role-playing – using avatars with predefined health histories. http://bit.ly/riEpFb

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Microsoft Surface Museum Collection Portal

The IDIA has assembled an interdisciplinary group of students, faculty and industry experts in a significant interactive information portal for the Ball State University Museum of Art (BSUMA).  The IDIA team is developing an innovative touch-based interface to navigate the collection, employing and integrating Microsoft Surface with the Museum’s database.  The Surface will afford Museum […]

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MMFX/IMA Interactive Project

IDIA is creating a media rich interactive digital kiosk for the Digital Fabrication Institute’s MMFX Exhibit hosted by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Students participating in the IDIA Immersion Seminar in Virtual Worlds are developing the interactive interface, which will act as a station within the exhibit where viewers can attain additional biographical and portfolio […]

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Research

Launch of Virtual Companion iOS app by IDIA Lab

Learn how modern technology can shape our understanding of the past during a special program at Mounds State Park on Saturday, Nov. 14. Visitors to the 1 p.m. program will join park naturalist Kelley Morgan to learn about modern technologies that help archaeologists and historians bring the past to life. During the second half, director […]

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Buffalo Bill’s Wild West gets a virtual makeover

Digital artists from Ball State’s IDIA Lab built their virtual simulation of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West with the Unity 3-D gaming platform along with custom software created by the lab. Cowboys and Indians captivated the country when Buffalo Bill’s Wild West rolled through America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. More than a century […]

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Virtual Buffalo Bill

Ball State University’s IDIA Lab https://idialab.org is developing a multiplayer virtual world that simulates Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. This digital history project is built in Unity 3D using custom software created by IDIA Lab and is being produced for the Buffalo Bill Center for the West in Cody, WY. Scholars include Douglas Seefeldt and James […]

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Oculus Rift + Leap Motion controller 3D printing.

Using our MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer, IDIA’s Chris Harrison worked with David Rodriguez to create a family of 3 brackets with varying uses and advantages to mount a Leap Motion Controller to the front of an Oculus Rift DK2. Finding that double sided tape was not doing a very effective job of holding the Leap […]

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