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Ghosts of the Buffalo Grass Xperience

Imagine, you step out unto a stage surrounded by a 20-foot wall of LED video panels displaying the vivid, open, wild. and untamed buffalo grasslands in southwestern Nebraska, land that is the haunt of the Sioux, the Cheyenne, the Pawnee, and over which they still wage bloody feuds.

Over your eyes are a set of special glasses, each tethered to a mini-computer and lithium battery pack carried over your shoulder like an Old West canteen. Through the lens you see American Civil War-era wall tents in neat rows, at the center of which are two large hospital tents connected. It is the makeshift dinning room for Army officers and their guests: a half dozen Russian dignitaries, including the guest-of-honor: Grand Duke Alexei Alexandravich, the son of the Tsar of Russia, Alexander II.

They and you are about to go on a far-reaching hunt for bison, escorted by the leading warriors of the Brulé band of Lakota Sioux. Their leader is Sinte Galeska, known to the officers, including General Philip Sheridan and Lt. Col. Custer, as Spotted Tail. Just then a tall, handsome young man dressed in buckskin rides up and announces he's found a herd of buffalo 15 miles to the southeast. His name is William Frederick Cody, known nationwide even then as "Buffalo Bill - King of the Border Men."

Thus begins your virtual participation in one of the rare, peaceful events in the history of the United States when American, Russian and Native people enjoyed each others company, collaborating in the thrill of the hunt... yet sadly, a hunt with dark politcal undercurrents and ecological consequences.

The Technology

The CAMP1872 Xperience seeks to meld four key technologies: augmented reality, holography, neural networks, and high-resolution LED displays driving realistic landscapes. Using light and sound, it seeks to immerse the senses in waves of visual and acoustic sensation, carrying across virtual oceans of grass and sky and into the midst of a rushing herd of bison and celebrating Lakota.

Read more about the back story of the Royal Buffal Hunt, the period newspaper accounts, and the immersive technology that can make the Xperience possible.