Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center is receiving $2,460 from Indiana Landmarks to develop an augmented reality program.
This program will allow people to see two historic African American neighborhoods with roots from the mid 20th century, and two historical churches from the early 20th century and late 19th century in 3-D.
Assistant Director and Curator at Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center, George Garner, say that “this is a way to create 3-D models of them so folks can see the sites as they are now, but then especially as we go decades into the future these photographs will remain as historically preserved documents of the way things are. I often wish…you know…if technology like this had existed 100 years ago, what we would be able to see of the past in this kind of tangible 3-D model”.
Garner said that some of the historically African American neighborhoods have a threatened future.
“We think it’s important not only to draw attention to that but again to create this record today of what things look like so that if these neighborhoods do end up being destroyed, we at the very least have this tangible way of looking at them”, Garner said while discussing a few of the threatened neighborhoods, mentioning Chalfant Heights in particular.
Some great news that Garner said, the augmented reality will be completely free for everyone to use.
“Anybody with a digital connection and anybody with a computer or digital device would be able to access this” Garner said.
