How you can use a new augmented reality experience to learn about Kentucky's Black history

With the help of augmented reality, five members of the Harlem Hellfighters can now march just yards away from the graves where they’re buried.

Using this technology, you can stand side-by-side with the likeness of the Kentucky soldiers from the African American combat unit that served 191 days on the frontlines and became the most decorated regiment of World War I.

“Attention! Left, left, left, right, left,” a soldier chants. "I thought signing up to fight during World War I was the right thing to do. We all thought that fighting for our country and being willing to pay the ultimate price would change things for us. That we'd seen as men. Equals."

This chilling moment when the soldiers appear in Calvary Cemetery in Shelbyville is one of 19 stories in the Kentucky Black Trailblazers' experience across six counties in the greater Louisville area. Using technology similar to the 2016 hit game Pokemon GO, regional tourism agencies have launched an immersive experience that superimposes digital videos of actors performing as historical figures into the real world with just a couple taps of a smartphone.

Now you can digitally interact with legends like Oliver Lewis on the grounds where he won the first Kentucky Derby in 1875 or with the legacies of Kentucky civil rights activists such as Margaret “Ma” Collier or Henry Bibb in a whole new dimension.

For the past few years, Janette Marson, president and CEO of ShelbyKY Tourism, has been watching the evolution of this technology, eager to find a way to loop it into visitor experiences. She first saw it on the brand 19 Crimes's wine bottles, which encourages consumers to scan the labels using their smartphones to see the criminals pictured on them come to life through augmented reality.

Marson got her chance to test it out when the state allocated $75 million from the American Rescue Plan Act for its tourism industry, and the Kentucky Department of Tourism was seeking transformational ideas that had never been done before.

Augmented reality fit the bill, and six area tourism agencies won a grant to help defray the costs to make the $1.08 million project happen.

Marson traveled to California and connected with Peter Oberdorfer, the president and executive creative director of Tactic, the company that created the digital storytelling for 19 Crimes "Living Wine Labels." Because of the steep production price tag, this type of technology is most commonly used to create consumer interactions with big-name corporate products, Oberdorfer explained. He’s worked on similar projects with brands like Coke, Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, and Benefit Cosmetics.

The Kentucky Black Trailblazers project gave his business a chance to apply its skills beyond the purpose of selling something, and instead, channel it into public good.

“Janette had an idea about leveraging this technology in a way that could really crack open history and make it alive for visitors to the region,” Oberdorfer told the Courier Journal.

Tourism leaders from Louisville, as well as Hardin, Nelson, Oldham, Bullitt and Shelby counties, teamed up with Black historians in their area to identify historical figures with stories of strength, courage, and resilience that shaped the state of Kentucky. Tactic tapped Black filmmaker Sean Frank as the director of the live-action. Using a sphere-like green screen and 110 cameras running at high-frame rates, Tactic filmed actors dressed in period clothing, which creates a digitally moving statue.

Unlike a recorded 2D video, visitors with smartphones can position the historic figures at different points on the grounds around them and even walk around in that digital space with them.

“We're an experiential company that creates real-time storytelling experiences, but augmented reality became our pen and paper for doing that,” Oberdorfer said. “But this gave us the opportunity to do something in the public realm, which we were very, very excited about.”

The figures are activated using QR codes posted on public signage, which makes the Kentucky Black Trailblazers accessible to anyone with a smartphone. The signs include some text and images about the figures to share the history with anyone who may not have that technology in their pocket.

The final result weaves together a narrative about Kentucky’s Black history that spans several generations and creates a mix of legendary and lesser-known figures. Visitors using the technology can interact with legends like Muhammad Ali outside the museum dedicated to him in downtown Louisville. But they can also learn about Mattie Owens, who pioneered Black education and taught eight grades a single room in Bullitt County, or Mack Rowan, who was born into slavery in Nelson County and went on to become a master boot and shoemaker.

“It's a transformational experience, not just another trail, but truly something that people can learn from and be moved by,” Marson said. “We are trying to (use this to) highlight things that should have been highlighted and celebrated years before.”

Features columnist Maggie Menderski writes about what makes Louisville, Southern Indiana and Kentucky unique, wonderful, and occasionally, a little weird. If you've got something in your family, your town or even your closet that fits that description — she wants to hear from you. Say hello at [email protected].

Stops on the Kentucky Black Trailblazers experience

Daniel Arthur Rudd: 315 N. Second St., Bardstown, at the Bardstown-Nelson County African American Heritage Museum

Dorsey Wickliffe: 550 Bloomfield Road, Bardstown, at Wickland, Home of Three Governors

Mack Rowan: 501 E. Stephen Foster Ave., at My Old Kentucky Home State Park

First Black Baptist Church: 112 W. Poplar St. Elizabethtown, located at Riasok Shriners Club building.

General Braddock: 117 W. Dixie Ave., Elizabethtown, located next to Denizen at Walker Square.

Margaret “Ma” Collier: 4554 Fayette Ave. Fort Knox, located at the Patton Museum Foundation building.

Mary Cunningham Smith and Lyman T. Johnson: 1701 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd., Louisville, located at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage.

Muhammad Ali: 144 N. 6th St., Louisville, located at the Muhammad Ali Center.

Oliver Lewis: 704 Central Ave., Louisville, located at the Kentucky Derby Museum.

Elijah P. Marrs: 514 Fifth St., Shelbyville, located at Veterans Memorial Park.

The Harlem Hellfighters: Seventh Street, Shelbyville, located at Calvary Cemetery.

Whitney M. Young Jr.: 7012-7022 US-60, Simpsonville located at Fred Wiche Park.

Annie Reed, Mattie Owens and Reverend C.H. Parrish: 300 S. Buckman St., Shepherdsville, located at the Bullitt County Historical Society.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: AR technology like Pokemon Go is behind Kentucky Black Trailblazers