5D AQUARIUM

The Phase 3 project, ¡§Waters of the World,¡¨ of National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium located in Pingtung, Taiwan, is featured by an extensive use of ¡§virtual aquariums¡¨ or the so-called ¡§no-water aquariums¡¨ for presentation. In the so-called ¡§virtual aquarium,¡¨ all the extinct creatures (of ancient oceans) or the rare marine creatures (of very deep sea) are presented through the technology of virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

Here the most noteworthy is the Ancient Ocean Zone because it is the only zone in the museum having a 3D surrounding screen displayed with 4D special effects. The wideness of its range and the difficulty of its technology are considered the greatest in the world. That was why its inauguration became a focus to all the marine museums of the world.

This zone has 4 units, including ¡§The Garden of Ediacara,¡¨ ¡§Cambrian Big Bang,¡¨ ¡§Trilobites and Fishes¡¨ and ¡§Marine Reptiles in Jurassic,¡¨ all of which were designed and built by YAOX.

YAOX provides marine museums of the world with total solutions and turnkey service of virtual aquarium display. Please feel free to contact the Marketing Department of YAOX( sandy@yaox.com , +886-2-37895266 ~4132 )

3D + 4D + HD

YAOX's 5D Aquarium System

After the System was inaugurated on Apr. 28, 2006, significant awareness was aroused to the digital display professionals of the world¡¦s museums because of the following reasons:
1. What the System presents are not images of an animated film, but the virtual reality images created by instant computing. Thus, they can be interactive with the visitors. Besides, the animal species are as many as 10, and they interact with each other. The presentation of the System is totally different from the playing of a film, which is repeated every certain period of time. This new technology was something that cannot be imagined in the past. Simply because of the outstanding virtual reality technology newly developed by YAOX, we achieved this significant bidding case.

2. The System is a simulation of real behaviors of the ecosystem through artificial intelligence. Therefore, the creatures here hunt preys whenever feeling hungry, and reproduce the next generation when mating season comes. But before its construction, it seemed very difficult for doing the biological textual research of the long-extinct creatures dating back to hundreds of millions years ago. YAOX employed 4 world famous paleontologists as the consultants. After two years¡¦ efforts, the visitors are able to see the life of these extinct animals which once lived on earth.

3. The huge 3D screen of ¡§Marine Reptiles in Jurassic¡¨ is 16 meters wide, with its computing volume being 6 times of a general digital film. This is really a great challenge to the computer hardware system. Hence, YAOX¡¦s capability of finding the solution this time represents the workability of large-scale 3D virtual reality application in future.


The Phase 3 museum of National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium of Taiwan was inaugurated on Apr. 28, 2006. The world¡¦s largest ¡§no-water aquarium¡¨ is the most important attraction of the ¡§Ancient Ocean Zone.¡¨ It is 100% designed and constructed by YAOX. To meet the museum¡¦s annual visitor capacity of 2 to 3 million, the Aquarium is designed to welcome 30,000 visitors maximum per day. Among the 4 units inside, ¡§Marine Reptiles in Jurassic¡¨ is the most popular unit, in which YAOX¡¦s ability of entire site design has amazing performance.


In the unit of ¡§Marine Reptiles in Jurassic,¡¨ three sets of 3D scenes are seamlessly projected onto a dedicated arc-shaped 16m-long screen by 6 projectors in the form of 3D projection. With 3D glasses worn, visitors can see the liopleurodon swimming by their sides. In this environment aligned with 4D special effects, they seem like living in the undersea of Jurassic Period dated back to 250 million years ago. Same as the Ocean Pool of the museum, this unit is built with an arc-shaped auditorium arrayed with rows of benches. Therefore, the visitors¡¦ experience in this zone is also the same as in the Ocean Pool. The only difference in between is that the creatures inside the Ocean Pool are the fishes of the modern times whereas those inside this unit are the 25m-long liopleurodons.


In the zone of ¡§Marine Reptiles in Jurassic,¡¨ long-necked plesiosaurs like to travel around with the whole family. Their motions are slow, so they can always hide themselves in the dark, only stretching their necks out to hunt for preys.
Ophthalmosaurus look like dolphin of the modern times. Its eyes are very big, and can see clearly even in the dark undersea. Its swimming speed is fast. It is the most favorite food of liopleurodon.

The seabed of Cambrian Period is also colorful. But it is viewed at a micro-viewed visual angle. It means that the visitors themselves are minimized when watching the scene.
This is a design plan of 5D Aquarium, which shows the projection of 3 connected 3D scenes on the surrounding screen, in front of which is the level auditorium.

In the zone of ¡§Cambrian Big Bang,¡¨ 2 sets of seamlessly connected 3D images are projected onto the screen. What makes it different from the zone of ¡§Marine Reptiles in Jurassic¡¨ is that there is no seat offered here. Visitors can stand here holding the rails and watching the screen.
Anomalocaridid is a gigantic prehistoric creature at the length of 3 meters. Although it was regarded as a jumbo sea creature in the Cambrian Period, its size was much smaller than a 25m-long liopleurodon of the Jurassic Period!