The dome, horizontal or tilted, is filled with real-time (interactive) or pre-rendered (linear) computer animations, live capture images, or composited environments.
Contemporary configurations employ raster video projectors, either singly or grouped together to cover the dome surface with full-color images and animations.
Newer emerging technologies being utilized include flexible curved LED displays[1] currently being installed at the fulldome MSG Sphere[2][3][4][5] with assistance from Industrial Light and Magic.
The result is a video image that covers an entire domed projection surface, yielding an immersive experience that fills a viewer's field of view.
The main disadvantage of single fisheye systems is that they are limited to the resolution of one projector, and in the smallest dimension of the video image to cover a full dome.
These systems are positioned along the edge of the dome to enhance seating capacity, reduce costs, and facilitate the transition of analog planetariums to digital formats without sacrificing their star projectors.
A wide variety of video projection technologies has been employed in domes, including cathode ray tube (CRT), Digital Light Processing (DLP), liquid crystal display (LCD), liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS), and most recently, two varieties of laser projectors (see the laser video projector).
For multi-projector systems, in particular, display devices must have a low black level (i.e., project little or no light when no signal is sent to them) to allow for reasonable edge-blending between the different projector footprints.
[16][17] December: Houston Museum of Natural Science opens SkyVision system as a permanent public theater, with seed funding from NASA in partnership with Rice University.
[23] Houston Museum of Natural Science premieres the first Earth Science fulldome show "Powers of Time" Carnegie Museum of Natural history opens the Earth Theater with a SkyVision system November: Institute of American Indian Arts opens the world's first fully articulating digital dome.