Imagine a place where technology is not just a tool, but an experience. Assume command over the cockpit, soar high in a hot-air balloon or slip into your favourite dresses—all in one place! To celebrate its 33rd anniversary, the National Science Centre, New Delhi, inaugurated a new gallery, titled ‘Digital World’ which features immersive AI-regulated experiences and other Augmented Reality (AR)-based exhibits.
A range of other displays have been set up in the museum, focusing on e-commerce, mobile networks and the role of digital technologies in accelerating the production of vaccines.
Exhibitions pertaining to AI and AR include the hot air balloon simulator, visual effects studio, virtual dress-up exhibit and the virtual zoo, among others.
“AI has been highly functional in every field,” said CSIR Director, Prof. Venugopal Acharya. “Be it biology or physics. And similar exhibits, for instance, the ‘Digital Imaging’ display help provide an understanding of the AI and its role in different sectors,” he further told THE WEEK referring to one of the featured exhibitions.
Digital imaging, in healthcare, uses imaging technology to view the human body in order to diagnose, monitor or treat medical conditions. The technology can be also used for a variety of other purposes, such as photography, sonography, x-ray and gamma-ray imaging and so on.
The captivating walk in the gallery starts with the exhibit portraying the evolution of computers—the room-sized machines which can now readily fit in a pocket.
Acharya also stressed the “need to introduce such similar projects at grassroots level”, so that knowledge can be uniformly disseminated among all parts of the society.
Other highlights in the gallery comprise the model ‘C-DOT: Harbinger of Communication Revolution’, depicting innovations like the Rural Automatic Exchange (RAX) that revolutionised India’s telecom sector and exhibits like ‘C-DAC: An Indian Success Story’, boasting India’s rise in high-performance computing after the US denied access to the Cray supercomputer.
The gallery—a tribute to India’s visionary policymakers and innovators of the digital sphere—will remain open for the public to experience and familiarise with the technological newness brought about globally.
National Science Centre, one of the largest science centres in Asia, was inaugurated on January 9, 1992, by the then Prime Minister of India, P.V. Narasimha Rao. The centre is a unit of the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) and is governed by the Ministry of Culture.
