Ever watched The Gadget Show? It’s a British television series focusing on technology. They preview and review the latest gadgets and broadcast the latest technology news.

What about Battlefield 3, the new first-person shooter video game developed by Electronics Arts which had lots of people went crazy to get their own copy?

Yeah, alright, but what does all this have to do with the fulldome world?

Well, here we have The Gadget Show meeting Battlefield 3, a unique FPS simulator that turns gaming into reality as you move, aim, fire and get shot within a 360-degree immersive environment.

Sounds familiar, right?

The fulldome media is not yet well known everywhere, but we all know how good it is with recreating immersive environments. It’s where virtual reality gets real. Fulldome is the future, and we are getting closer each day. Imagine how it could have been if this simulator were made inside a real dome featuring a fulldome projection... let’s say your planetarium or digital theater.

Using a pre-release copy of Battlefield 3 and a team of top technology experts from across Europe, The Gadget Show built a truly one of a kind simulator.

Centred on the world's first, portable omni-directional treadmill (designed by Swedish company MSE Weibull) the simulator lets you control the movements of a Battlefield 3 character with your own body. Other key technology employed includes: an Igloo Vision projection dome; 12 paintball markers that allow the player, in real time, to feel the enemy gunfire experienced in the game; a wireless gun system; ambient LED lighting; and an Xbox Kinect camera hack.

Watch the highlights of The Gadget Show's FPS gaming simulator that premiered on Channel 5 in the UK on Monday 24th October 2011. Things start to get interesting around minute 9.

Yep, that's great! But fulldome videos are far more immersive than panoramic ones. Shall we tell them?

Let’s schedule an event under your dome! It’s not astronomy, but it can bring hundreds of people to your place and once you have them, they’ll fall in love with science too!

See also

• MSE Weibul: Omni-Directional Treadmill and Motion Tracking
• Igloo Vision: Projection and 360-degree Dome
• APS: Visual Manipulation
• Extra Dimensional Technologies: Ambient Lighting
• Running in the Halls: XBox Kinect Hack
• Robo Challenge: Paintball Marker Control System
• Yoyotech: Gaming PC