Our Company

Company Profile  Our Mission  Key Personnel  IDI Milestones  IDI Client List  Contact Information

IDI was incorporated in Maryland in 1986. It is a closely held, private corporation.

Since 1984, IDI has been designing, producing, and using voice-activated interactive video simulations for experiential learning. The founders of IDI were associated with the National Library of Medicine, which supported the early research and development of the model and multimedia authoring tool, now known as Conversim™, to produce Virtual Conversations™ programs. The founders of IDI further developed the model and, in 1991, were awarded U.S. Patent No. 5,006,987 to protect this unique method of dialogue with a virtual human subject. Subsequently, IDI developed a dynamic, intelligent prompting system to help users conduct a focused and informative dialogue with Virtual Conversations™ characters. In 1997, U.S. Patent No. 5,730,603 was awarded to protect the IDI prompting method.

IDI’s personnel profile consists of educational theorists who design the interactive experiences; production specialists who, with our full production studio, produce the video scenarios; and artistic and technical personnel who, with the Conversim™ multimedia authoring tool, create the dialogue programs. Systems analysts provide maintenance and continued development of the Conversim™ system.

Currently, IDI research and development activities are funded by grants from NIH and contracts from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the Department of Defense. Numerous Virtual Conversations™ CD-ROMs embodying educational solutions to medical, military, and social problems are currently being marketed.