India's first 'fulldome 3D Digital Theatre' at the Science City here was inaugurated by Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma on Monday.

The 'fulldome 3D Digital Theatre' at the Science city was the first of its kind in India having a 23 metre titled dome to offer a fully immersive experience to the visitors, Sharma said while inaugurating it through video conferencing from New Delhi.

"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," he said.

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, he said.

The Union minister expressed 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.

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

"I hope Science City will contribute to the spread of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education for the younger generations," Sharma said.

Science City Director Subhabrata Chaudhury told PTI that 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.

Choudhury said the 'fulldome 3D Digital Theatre' was upgraded at a cost of Rs 20 crore.

He said the Science city get around 15 lakh visitors per annum on an average and the space theatre had 72 lakh visitors in the past 20 years.

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