Digital Innovation Lab

The Digital Innovation Lab is a collaborative hub for exploring innovative ways to improve access to museums spaces, collections, and experiences for all Canadians. Working with academia, start-ups, visitor-serving industries, and the accessibility community, the Lab explores emerging technologies, user experience and accessible design to create more inclusive experiences for everyone.

Work with us

What we offer

Unique in Canada, the Digital Innovation Lab connects national and international collaborators with Ingenium’s user experience (UX), interpretive, and digital experts.

We have the skills, experience, space, equipment, networks, and audiences to collaborate or provide customary services to help design, enhance, test, and deploy your digital product against the highest standards in digital accessibility.

We also look to partner with organizations that seek to develop products that are community-based and inclusive, and to help advance the development of digital accessibility standards and practices for everyone’s benefit.

Learn more about the Digital Innovation Lab strategy (PDF, 1.83 MB).

Access to space and technology

The Lab features innovative spaces, AV suites, and access to Canada’s one-of-a-kind collection of 3D artifacts, along with one-of a kind scanner in Canada that can quickly digitize large objects and spaces at a high level of fidelity and speed.

Access to digital expertise

The Lab offers various collaborative opportunities and specialized workshops in digital accessibility, 3D scanning and rendering, UX, and digital museum practices.

Access to audiences

The Lab can connect you with a wide variety of audiences for user testing your digital products.

Our services and offerings

Some of the services we offer include:

Workshops and webinars
3D scanning and rendering
Space and equipment rentals (AV, coworking, etc.)
Digital accessibility audits & user testing
Event rentals
Consultation services

https://youtu.be/EblIqW79FIk&rel=0

Show video transcript

“With the Ingenium Digital Innovation Lab’s 3D capabilities, we are able to 3D scan objects that are small and intricate all the way up to full-scale rooms in incredible detail allowing for highly accurate measurements and planning preservation of important pieces of Canadian history, and the replication of deteriorating parts for fabrication.” [Clips of various people holding different 3D scanners scanning objects ranging from microphones to airplanes, interspersed with clips of 3D rendering and modelling.]

“With our wireless capabilities, we can capture objects anywhere and bring them to life, communicating important scientific history to Canadians around the country.” [A person holding an AR app on their phone and scanning it across the room. Collections objects appear on their phone in real-size in relation to the room.]

“Work with us today! Ingenium Digital Innovation Lab. innovation@ingeniumcanada.org”

Workshops and Webinars

The Digital Innovation Lab offers paid half-day and full day, hands-on workshops for teams interested in developing their skillsets in user experience (UX), digital, 3D, and accessibility. Online webinars are also available as condensed, one-hour versions of the workshops without hands-on activities, but offering a live Q&A after the presentation.

All webinars and workshops can be delivered in English and/or French and are customizable in content and length. We will work with you to tailor examples and outcomes to your objectives and projects.

Workshops can be delivered online or in-person at the Digital Innovation Lab.

These sessions are for people in government, private sector, academia, museums, or other visitor-serving industries, but we’ll also extend beyond that if there is interest.

Participants in this workshop will engage in various UX activities that are used in the design industry to get into the mindset of the user and build a stronger product for them. The tips and tools learned in this workshop can be easily applied to your own company projects with your own unique visitors/users.

Participants will leave the hands-on workshop feeling confident that they can use these tools independently.

This workshop will give participants an overview of digital accessibility for web and other digital products including WCAG standards for web accessibility, a discussion on screen-readers, and how to make your websites more accessible for all.

This workshop will also review Ingenium’s Accessibility Standards for Digital Products, including how to design more accessibly and inclusively for your visitors when it comes to digital kiosks, AR, and more. Participants will learn about the different ways to design for visitors, and how to test their digital products for accessibility, using real-world examples from Ingenium’s own accessibility projects.

Please note that this workshop will only cover digital accessibility, not accessibility in the built environment.

This workshop will give participants an overview of the basics of 3D digitization including photogrammetry, 3D scanning, 360 photos, and how they can be used to engage your audience.

This workshop will talk about the benefits of 3D digitization, the different file types and outputs (including 3D printing, gaming, online collections, etc.), how it can help in the conservation effort, and special considerations like copyright infringement.

Participants will learn how to 3D scan an object using one of the Digital Innovation Lab’s state-of-the-art 3D scanners, and discover the work involved in post-production.

Accessibility features in the lab

Sennheiser MobileConnect allows audio to be accessed via a smartphone app in which headphones and hearing aids can be synced via Bluetooth, allowing users access to live presentation audio which they can adjust to their needs
Whiteboard tables that flip up to allow for someone in a wheelchair to use them, comfortably
A touchscreen that can be adjusted up or down to the height of the user, including someone in a wheelchair
Moveable furniture to accommodate different projects/set ups

Some of the tech we explore

Digitization
3D modelling and printing
Games and game engines
Virtual and augmented reality
Data visualization
Accessible and inclusive design
Creative storytelling
Design-thinking
Rapid prototyping and testing

I have really enjoyed and appreciated working with this Lab. I find that they really think through their projects carefully, ask great questions, listen to our feedback and involve consultants in all stages of development. I am always excited to work with them on their very innovative projects.

Ingenium provided our postgraduate students the opportunity to practice their research and design skills in a real-world context. Working directly with the museums and their stakeholders our students gained industry experience while studying, an applied learning experience that directly supported their career ambitions.

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Contact us

If you would like to partner with us or would like more information on the Digital Innovation Lab, please contact:

Lauren DiVito | Manager, Digital Innovation Lab

digital@ingeniumcanada.org