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
Interactive Virtual ChatBots
Interactive Virtual ChatBots IDIA Lab’s chatbots provide interactions with virtual 3D animated non-player characters (NPC) that can be created with customized persona profiles. Users can converse with NPCs via voice or text input, where the virtual characters use artificial intelligence to assess the tone of the conversation and reflect simulated responses with facial animation, gesture, […]
Read More About Interactive Virtual ChatBotsVirtual Elementary School
Virtual Elementary School The Maryknoll Virtual School, created by the IDIA Lab, is a digital twin simulation of a parochial elementary school in Honolulu, HI. The virtual school provides an environment for students and teachers to remotely engage in collaborative real time lectures and conversations in a multiplayer, avatar based teaching environment. The application also […]
Read More About Virtual Elementary SchoolSmithsonian VR Exhibition
Smithsonian VR Exhibition BSU IDIA Lab developed Virtual Milestones of Flight, an immersive head mounted display prototype designed for the permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Both the exhibition and simulation celebrate selections of the most significant airplanes, rockets, and spacecraft in history. Some of these craft incorporated into […]
Read More About Smithsonian VR ExhibitionNSF FUNDED VIRTUAL SIMULATION OF HADRIAN’S VILLA
NFS Funded Virtual Simulation of Hadrian’s Villa IDIA Lab has designed a virtual simulation of the villa of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site located outside of Rome in Tivoli, Italy. This project is being produced in collaboration with the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory (VWHL) at the University of Virginia […]
Read More About NSF FUNDED VIRTUAL SIMULATION OF HADRIAN’S VILLAResearch
Las Americas Virtual Design Studio
The Las Americas Virtual Design Studio is made possible through a collaboration between IDIA, the College of Architecture and Planning at Ball State University, the Las Americas Network, with the professional firm of BSA LifeStructures. The project linked 11 international Departments of Architecture, over 100 students and 11 faculty in this immersive collaboration environment. The students worked […]
Read More About Las Americas Virtual Design StudioNURSING 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
Read More About NURSING INTERVIEW SIMULATORVirtual Middletown Living Museum in Blue Mars
The Virtual Middletown Living Museum project in Blue Mars is a simulation of the Ball Glass factory from early 20th century Muncie, Indiana. Life and conditions in the factory were one of the key elements of the Middletown Studies by Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd in their landmark studies Middletown (1929) and Middletown in Transition (1937). These in-depth accounts […]
Read More About Virtual Middletown Living Museum in Blue MarsIDIA Lab Simulations in Blue Mars
Ball State University’s Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts (IDIA) in Blue Mars is a large scale virtual simulation that showcases re-creations of artifacts and artworks in their original historical contexts, including sculptures at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and a centuries-old Buddha at a Japanese temple. Through the use of such emerging […]
Read More About IDIA Lab Simulations in Blue Mars