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
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 […]
Read More About Old Planetarium + Cutting Edge StudioNATIONAL 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 […]
Read More About NATIONAL AWARD: VIRTUAL ESCAPE ROOMNewton’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 […]
Read More About Newton’s Cenotaph in VRGIS 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 […]
Read More About GIS PAPER: DEEP MAPPING