Rolling hills of green onion fields nestle around the Wulaokeng (武荖坑) scenic area in Yilan. Miles of unimpeded view stretch out for as far as the eye can see toward a clear horizon, where the Xincheng River (新城溪) that flows through Su'ao Township meets the Pacific Ocean. The Anyo Museum (安永心食館) is situated here, embraced by the natural environment between the mountain and the sea. There’s a sense of calm and tranquility. Inside the museum, cutting-edge augmented reality technology is reinterpreting marine culture and food safety education in bold new ways.

The Anyo Museum really raises the bar for tourism factories across the nation. The tech company behind the museum is no bit player. Its name is Topco Scientific (崇越科技), and it is the top distributor of semiconductor equipment and materials in Taiwan.

Stand at the right spot in the lobby and dolphins will swim over on the giant interactive AR display to take an ocean-themed selfie with you. (Source: The National Development Commission)

Setting Sights on the Health Industry and Adding Value to Taiwan’s Fisheries

“We’ve set our sights on the health industry!” Dr. J. W. Kuo (郭智輝), Chairman of Topco Group, told reporters during an interview. Our health is affected by what we eat, and Taiwan is surrounded by ocean. This is the prime location for aquafarming. Topco took a page from the semiconductor production process and imported the Cells Alive System (CAS) from Japan. This state-of-the-art food preservation technique has been applied to diverse fields of aquafarming, such as seafood processing, food biotechnology, and retail and distribution. Additionally, Topco invested one billion Taiwan dollars to build the Anyo Museum. It is a platform for promoting food safety education, healthy seafood, healthy aquaculture, and marine culture. It adds value to Taiwan’s entire aquatic product industry.

From the architecture of the building to the exhibitions and events housed within, everything about the Anyo Museum was built to meet Kuo’s exacting, high tech standards. He poured all of Topco Group’s technological inventions into this masterpiece: solar power, rainwater harvesting, seafood processing. The result is a “diamond-rated” green building recognized by Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior. It serves as a tourism factory that houses a production line utilizing the Cells Alive System.

Dazzling new augmented reality (AR) technology was also introduced to the museum. It is the best way to attract visitors to experience marine culture for themselves. In front of a giant television screen in the lobby on the first floor, there’s an AR-enhanced selfie station that enthralls every visitor to the museum.

When visitors stand at the right spot, the AR display will manipulate the image to show them perched on a coral reef watching dolphins, or deep inside a virtual underwater world. Visitors can use their imagination and interact with the simulated sea creatures or pose for the camera. The machine will automatically snap a photo and generate a QR code. If visitors scan the code with their smart device, they can download the photo of themselves frolicking with fish and dolphins. 

The Anyo Museum (安永心食館) is using innovative technology to teach visitors about the world’s oceans. Interactive displays are their specialty. For instance, visitors can catch fake fish from a pond and put it in a mannequin’s mouth to learn about its species and nutritional value. (Source: The National Development Commission)

The fun doesn’t stop there. In the “Ocean Entertainment Hall” on the second floor, animation software transforms the images of visitors into cutesy mermaids, submarines, or scuba divers gliding around a colorful coral reef. In the pitch black “Fantastical Journey” (幻遊迷蹤) room, motion sensors track visitors’ footsteps and spontaneously generate the illusion of schools of fish swimming at their feet, often to the surprise and delight of everyone in the room.

The “Little Fisher” (漁產小釣手) exhibition is especially popular with young children. Kids can use magnetic fishing poles to capture wooden fish of all shapes and colors from a pond. If they put the fake fish into a nearby mannequin’s mouth, the display will immediately show the name of the fish and its nutritional values.

In addition, there’s a food processing production line on display in the museum. Visitors can roll up their sleeves and help make products like brown rice porridge or collagen jelly. There’s also a kitchen that teaches baking, a restaurant that serves dim sum and other healthy snacks, and a grocery store that sells Anyo’s self-produced fresh foods and produce from Yilan.

Through the wonders of AR, visitors’ mugshots are attached to cartoon mermaids, submarines, or scuba divers so they can swim around a colorful coral reef. (Source: The National Development Commission) 

In the pitch black “Fantastical Journey” (幻遊迷蹤) room, infrared sensors track visitors’ locations and project the silhouettes of fluorescent fish to appear in the floor and swim around the visitors’ feet. (Source: The National Development Commission)

Becoming the High-Tech Platform that Elevates Local Farmers and Fishers

“We combine art and aesthetics into our exhibitions to promote marine and food safety education. We want to build a place where people can come to relax, learn something new, and participate in a wide range of diverse activities.” This is the mission statement of Wen Jinzhu (翁金珠), Chairwoman of Anyo Museum Co. (安永樂活公司), the company that runs the museum. In the future, the museum will be transformed into a story house. It will be open to visitors of all ages who wish to experience marine culture and learn about food safety.

The Anyo Museum is much more than a tourism factory that offers sightseeing services, teaches the public about the characteristics of the industry’s culture, and provides educational value. It also actively participates in the “Yilan Recreational and Educational Food Experience Ecosystem” (宜蘭酷樂食育體驗生態系), a program managed by the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration at the Ministry of Economic Affairs. This program connects different aspects of Yilan’s agricultural sector to promote local eco-experience. It also works with food safety-conscious local brands such as Yilan Ban (宜蘭斑), “Yilan Harvest” (宜糧號), and other small farmers and fishers to provide DIY activities, sell produce to restaurants, and cater to consumers directly through the museum’s shops.

What’s more, Anyo plans to help Yilan’s local aquafarmers improve the value of their products. Expensive seafood such as the orange-spotted grouper and giant grouper can be kept fresh when it’s packaged by Anyo’s Cells Alive System. The fish can then be stored and transported through Anyo’s cold chain to increase its added value.

“Small farmers and fishers produce in small quantities and only during brief production seasons. Using CAS to help them may not be a good investment, but we want to help them because it is our corporate social responsibility,” says Liu Shu-Fen (劉淑芬), Assistant Vice President of Anyo Museum Co. The Anyo Museum will continue to harness its ability to work with local fishers and farmers for the greater benefit of the entire region. Together, they will forge a safer and brighter future for Taiwan’s food safety and agricultural sector. 

Modus Operandi

The Anyo Museum acts as an innovative platform that creates a promotional strategy and assists the farming community through three phases. During the first phase, it initiates intimate interaction with Yilan’s local farmers and fishers by purchasing their produce to use in the museum’s DIY events and restaurants. During the second phase, it sells the local farmers and fishers’ processed foods in the museum’s stores as a way to introduce them to tourists and generate revenue. During the third phase, it offers cold chain logistics services and increases the added value of Yilan’s agricultural products, while continuing to interact with the local community.

An automated production line was installed inside the Anyo Museum so visitors can observe through glass panes how bass essence is produced. (Source: The National Development Commission) 

Company Bio

• Anyo Museum
• Founded: 2017
• Technological applications: Solar power, energy saving lighting systems, rain harvesting, augmented reality interactive exhibitions, smart controlled environment greenhouses, the Cells Alive System, etc.
• Business results: The museum is a “diamond-rated” green building recognized by Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior; it also won the Idea-Tops “Best Green Architecture Design Award”. The bass essence and collagen jelly produced here won the Monde Selection Gold Award. The rooftop solar panels were activated on May 24, 2016. As of September 23, 2019, they have generated 1,154,456 kwH of electricity, reduced carbon emission by 60.9553 tons, which is the equivalent of planting 20,318,425 trees.

Translated by Jack C.
Edited by Sharon Tseng
Content sponsored by The National Development Commission