Military veterans will soon have a new training center right in the middle of Taipei. Taiwan''s first-ever augmented and virtual reality military training center is in the works. It will welcome both military professionals and amateurs to experience simulated battles and war zones, and sharpen military skills through virtual games. A department store in Taipei is being repurposed for the project.

Shin Shin Department Store is run by the Veteran Affairs Council. It once focused on jade artifacts and gifts from Veteran Affairs Council farms. But amid long restrictions on Taiwan’s borders that have kept visitors away for years, many concessions closed down. Now the store will become the country’s first VR battle training center.

You Chih-huang
Shin Shin Department Store chair
We’ll establish a metaverse idea here, bringing in simulators. Retired service members and pilots who still have the capacity to fight or are training young men for military service, they will be able to use these simulations to practice. They won’t have to go to a military camp to keep their military skills up.

Lin Jui-yueh
Tex-Ray Industrial chair
If we can go a step further and use wearable smart technology, and interact with that, then the user can get the feeling of being right inside loads of different situations.

Working with Tex-Ray Industrial, the store will create a center for augmented and virtual reality war games. Visitors can hop in a flight simulator or try out an armed battle game. Half of the space will be for military training, and half for amateurs. Shin Shin says the military training will be kept top secret, with the utmost care taken to protect classified information.

You Chih-huang
Shin Shin Department Store chair
The establishment of this metaverse center is good for our national defense technology and good for the Ministry of National Defense.

The center cost a tidy NT$150 million to build, and in the future it will partner with hospitals to create a smart treatment platform to provide physical therapy and treatment supports. Its creators hope it could start welcoming the public into virtual worlds as early as November.