Services | IDIA Lab

IDIA leverages its expertise in visualization, simulation, interface design, games and virtual reality in providing clients custom solutions in a wide range of services and products. Please contact us to discuss your needs.

Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are three-dimensional environments that can provide compelling shared experiences for their users. These immersive spaces can connect to social networks, web-services, media and data to bridge into an entire universe of external content. We have developed scores of projects in virtual worlds and game engines including CryEngine, Unity 3D, Blue Mars, Jibe, Second Life, Open Simulator, and Quest 3D.

The virtual world workflow begins in Maya 3D, or other industry standard animation software packages used in visualization industries – where the geometries are proportioned and prepared to receive textures. The models are then brought into Unity 3D or similar game engine where the lighting, textures, real-time shadows, and physics simulations are applied. Any functionality or interactivity is then designed using the game engine’s internal scripting toolsets or external coding.

Virtual worlds and hybrid reality applications have recently been deployable and experienced on both internet browsers and mobile devices such as iPhones, Androids and tablets. As these new virtual capabilities scale down instead of up – their potential to be integrated into other hybrid experiences increases. Mobile devices are used to help us navigate, communicate, stay informed and be entertained – as these ever more powerful devices are embedded into our daily lives – they allow for a single project to be scaled for spectrum of immersive or mobile experiences. The same content from projects can now be realized as an executable, online browser, mobile device or even game consoles such as Nintendo Wii game using one production workflow.

Virtual Hadrian’s Villa Launch at Harvard Center

Virtual Hadrian’s Villa Launch at Harvard Center 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 has been produced in collaboration with the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory (VWHL) at Indiana University (IU), directed […]

Mellon Foundation Humanities Virtual World Consortium

BSU’s IDIA Lab was contracted by the Mellon Foundation Humanities Virtual World Consortium to design and develop a major open source virtual world initiative for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage projects. The consortium – comprised of Kings College, London; UCLA; the University of Virginia and Trinity College, Dublin – turned to the expertise of BSU’s […]

History Channel’s The Universe Features Virtual Stonehenge

IDIA Lab has developed a simulation of Stonehenge in Unity 3D which illustrates the various stages of construction and celestial alignments in an interactive virtual simulator. The project incorporates IDIA Lab’s CelestialEngine which uses NASA JPL data to accurately position the sun, moon and visible planets – correcting for changes in time in the Earth’s […]

Ball State University’s IDIA Lab is granted rights to Blue Mars virtual world technology from Avatar Reality

Ball State University’s IDIA Lab is granted rights to Blue Mars virtual world technology from Avatar Reality http://bit.ly/BSU_BlueMars Ball State granted rights to develop $10 million Blue Mars virtual world technology (3/5/2012) Ball State granted rights to develop $10 million Blue Mars virtual world technology (3/5/2012) A digital laser scan of a centuries-old Buddha (above) and […]

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 Apollo 15

IDIA Lab’s Virtual Apollo 15 is a simulation of the mission which launched on July 26, 1971 from the Kennedy Space Center, at Cape Canaveral, Florida. During the launch, the S-IC did not completely shut off following staging for four seconds, creating the possibility of the spent stage banging into the S-II engines, damaging them […]

Virtual Mosque Demo

Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts at Ball State University (IDIA Lab). A demonstration level featuring architecture of the Mosque. Visit Virtual Mosque Demo in Blue Mars http://blink.bluemars.com/City/IDIA_Mosque/ Virtual Mosque Demo in Blue Mars Video Walkthrough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYS7Zafr0bk

Temple of Artemis: Wonder of the Ancient World

IDIA Lab was contracted by digital humanities scholars at UCLA to design and build a virtual simulation of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, This massive Greek temple, four times the size of the Parthenon lies in ruin in present-day Turkey. This simulation incorporates our CelestialEngine with accurately positions […]

Virtual Roman Pantheon in Blue Mars / CryEngine

The Pantheon is the best-preserved architectural monument of ancient Rome. This simulation by BSU’s IDIA Lab represents the Pantheon and its surrounds as it may have appeared in 320 AD. Visitors to this Blue Mars / CryEngine simulation can tour the vicinity, learning about the history, function and solar alignments through an interactive heads up […]

Virtual Nursing Simulator

HDT and IDIA Lab have developed a next generation, high-fidelity Virtual Nursing Simulator in the game engine of Unity 3D for testing by the Ball State University School of Nursing. Students will practice interviews via role-playing – employing avatars with predefined health histories. The simulator introduces our new media tools within the environment including the […]

Interactive Simulations

Interactive solutions for desktop, internet and mobile applications. Sciences, industry, arts, learning and cultural heritage.

Live multi-user virtual teaching and learning simulators
Immersive virtual curriculum (cross platform desktop, internet and mobile)
Human computer interaction

Final Wisdom I: Interactive Haptic Poetry Installation at SIGGRAPH 2010

Final Wisdom I is an interactive installation engaging viewers in a sensory exploration of temporal and spatialized poetry. Participants manipulate imagery, sound and language through their gesture, touch and proximity. The work is engaged through a framework of cameras and sensors that react to heat, position, and capacitance – presenting a shifting environment of reactive media and haptics. Final Wisdom I is the […]

Virtual Apollo 15

Virtual Mosque Demo

Clarian Health VR Simulation

In collaboration with Clarian Health, IDIA has created a training video and interactive media to help facilitate the transition into the Ball Memorial Hospital New South Tower. How can nurses train in a new hospital wing before it is constructed? Or after it’s complete and full of patients? For help addressing the situation, hospital officials […]

Eco-Net

“Eco-Net” is an attempt to connect wireless network data with nature by visualizing that data with plant-like structures and organic motion. Each plant represents a computer connected to the network and each IP address is displayed above the corresponding plant. Collective network activity is displayed as websites are browsed and emails are sent. This piece […]

3D Visualizations

Animated 3D visualizations for science, cultural heritage, arts and industry.

Historic recreations
Medical and scientific visualizations
Architectural walkthroughs
Information visualizations
Scientific, data and cultural heritage animations

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 […]

Virtual 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 […]

3D Point Cloud Laser Scanning

From a seashell to auditorium, laser-scanning can capture the objects and spaces we inhabit and convert them into a digital model. The IDIA scans a range of small or large scale 3D objects using facilities and equipment shared with the SimLab in the College of Architecture and Planning and supported by the Office of Information […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Dice+

Connecting Dice+ to a Cell Phone The DicePlus (Dice+) can communicate with both iOS and Android devices and has an available SDK for Android, iOS, and Unity. It has capabilities including: return dice number rolled, control of LED’s, magnetometer and accelerometer for orientation and movement, capacitive sensor for proximity and touch, and temperature sensor for […]

Mobile Arduino Controller

The Mobile Arduino Controller allows one to access an Arduino board via a mobile friendly website. It’s a website designed for mobile devices for a couple reasons… 1) Allows access from computers, not just smart phones. 2) Easier for the public to access the Arduino or multiple Arduinos for installations without searching for an app […]

Unity Mobile Controller

The Unity Mobile Controller would allow us to have a Unity project running on a PC, and users would be able to download an app that turns their smart phone into the controller. This allows for the project running on the PC to show the player and the smart to display the controls and other […]

Gaming in Virtual Worlds and on Mobile Devices

REAL TIME 3D ENVIRONMENTS Virtual worlds are three-dimensional environments that can provide compelling shared experiences for their users. These media-rich immersive spaces can connect to social networks, web-services, and data to bridge into an entire universe of external content. The IDIA has developed scores of projects in virtual worlds and game environments including Blue Mars, […]