Innovation Special Planetariums 9 - Carl Zeiss Planetariums

Digital planetarium applications in
powerdome.
tors bringing their smartphone or other
device with browser application can
interact. The powerdome®WebInterface
offers many ways of simultaneous interaction,
e.g., in a quiz: Ask a question,
and members of the audience can
choose from several answers shown on
their browser-capable devices. The correct
answers are saved to a database,
and a list of the best contestants will be
shown on the dome.
Another possible use is voting. Have
your audience take part in a majority
decision on which show or sequence to
be played. Viewers can read descriptions
on their smartphones and vote accordingly.
The votes cast will be shown on
the dome.
The Web interface offers show producers
novel capabilities to involve
audiences. You can make use of freely
available Web technologies such as SQL
databases, php and Javascript for creating
interactive show contents. We think
that our powerdome®WebInterface is
an extremely useful solution for remote
control and an interesting approach to
audience interaction.
Extended integration of Uniview
With the Uniview program package, users
can expand their systems by a visualization
platform for three-dimensional
presentation of the observable universe.
Powerdome® II offers the capability
for all system commands admissible in
Uniview to be placed on the timeline or
actuated directly. This yields entirely new
possibilities of integrating Uniview in the
course of a show, among them the direct
invocation of bookmarks, selection
of time and place, and selection of a
celestial body even before Uniview takes
over. In this way, smooth transition from
analog planetarium projection to the 3D
sky and the combination of star projection
with 3D effects can take place without
the audience noticing any jump.
Autocalibration
Camera-based automatic geometry
correction, originally developed for
powerdome®VELVET, is now available
for all other projection systems with
mechanical masks. Autocalibration is
not tied to powerdome® II but can be
retrofitted to systems supplied earlier.
Once it is installed, the user can effect
geometry correction at any time. Autocalibration
ensures consistent, exact adjustment,
with the least time involved,
and independent of the skill of a service
engineer. For an eight-channel system,
the procedure will take between 15
and 30 minutes, depending on computer
power. Once performed, the calibration
need hardly ever be repeated. As
a rule, readjustment is only necessary
after maintenance work on individual
projectors.
Remote maintenance for powerdome
and planetarium projectors
For some years we offer remote maintenance
services at a cost for powerdome
systems and optical-mechanical
planetarium projectors. On the user's request
we access their selected computers
for express help in case of questions
or problems. We can collect log files
from the systems or monitor projectors.
Remote service is offered on a variety
of levels – from online help in operation
and maintenance to regular updating of
powerdome and Windows.
Since we introduced this scheme some
years ago we have had positive responses
from customers. If our specialists can
have remote insight into customers’
computers it is almost as if they sat right
in front of them: They can diagnose
and remedy faults, or be well prepared
should a service trip become necessary
nevertheless – a procedure that saves
customers a lot of time and money.
Innovation Special Planetariums 9, 2012
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