Good news for all lazy adventurers.. can submerge into the nature while sitting on a chair now!

Kolkata, February 19: Being the first of its kind in India, the 'Fulldome 3D Digital Theatre' at the Science city was inaugurated by Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma on Monday. The theatre has a 23 metre titled dome to offer a fully immersive experience to the visitors.

 

Students in Kolkata were amused with the Fulldome 3D experience while watching the first film that was screened at the theatre, “Serengeti”, which documents the journey of more than two million wild beasts, zebras and antelopes over 500 miles across the Serengeti plains in Tanzania.

 

While inaugurating it through video conferencing from New Delhi, Sharma said, “As technology has changed in last two decades, so public taste and popular demand has also changed and a need was felt to upgrade the projection system from 2D celluloid based system to digital 2D/3D system to offer more and more immersive experience to the visitors”.

 

Fulldome films will be shown primarily on a wide variety of topics ranging from astronomy and geoscience to other natural sciences. 2D and 3D films will be screened in the facility, with a seating capacity of 360 persons per show.

“With this new facility, the first in the Indian sub-continent, one can feel like touching the water waves or the leaves of a tree during screening in the two edutainment films which will give an immersive experience where the viewer will feel part of environment”, shared Science City Director Subhabrata Chaudhury.

Expressing hope that the new facility will encourage a higher number of children to visit Science City to have glimpse of the mysteries of science around them, Culture Minister said, “I hope Science City will contribute to the spread of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education for the younger generations”.

The 'Fulldome 3D Digital Theatre' was upgraded at a cost of Rs 20 crore. The new system is capable of screening high resolution, full dome, and digital 2D/3D content by utilising six, high-end projectors in a 23-meter diameter dome using Ulteria Seam technology.

The Science City is operated by the National Council of Science Museums under the Ministry of Culture.