African Heritage Month Celebrates Unsung Heroes

Nova Scotia's 28th annual African Heritage Month celebrations will pay tribute to Unsung Heroes: Men Who Make a Difference.

"In 2010 we celebrated our Leading Ladies, Lasting Legacies, and in 2012 we are following suit by recognizing men who have a positive impact on their neighbourhoods," said Mr. Paris.

"These men provide jobs and support, they mentor youth and care for the elderly, and they have a quiet but impressive influence on people around them. They may not be household names, but they make their communities, and this province, a better place."

The unsung heroes are: Donald Cooke Jr., Amherst; Everett Desmond, Upper Big Tracadie; Joel Marsman, Lower Sackville; Keith Miller, Yarmouth; C.F. "Babe" Paris, New Glasgow; and Archbishop Vincent Waterman, Sydney.

The men were selected through an open call for nominations held in the fall. The province wide African Heritage Month Information Network chose the six finalists.

Read more: Unsung Heroes

Dartmouth Company Expands Work in Augmented Reality

A Dartmouth company that builds and manages augmented reality applications for major retail customers throughout North America is hiring more employees and developing new applications with help from the province.

Ad-Dispatch is receiving a $250,000 term loan through Nova Scotia Business Inc. to help with the growing demand for its product and to compete globally.

Ad-Dispatch uses what is known as augmented reality to bring merchandise and clothing to life via smartphones, tablets, personal computers or other webcam-enabled devices. When the devices recognize specific visual triggers on clothing logos, called total visual recognition, characters and other imagery instantly become interactive. To see a demonstration go to www.youtube.com/AdDispatch .

The company works with some of the largest clothing distributors in the United States. These distributors have licences to some of the most recognizable brands in stores like Macy's, JC Penny, Target, Walmart and Sears.

"Augmented Reality is just now at the point where it's becoming a recognized term in the industry, however we certainly have a long way to go in educating the market on its many applications and uses while keeping a competitive advantage over other industry players," said Nathan Kroll, president and CEO of Ad-Dispatch. "By receiving funding of this kind, we can pursue the market more aggressively with key hires in both sales and product development to ensure we remain industry leaders."

Read more: Ad-Dispatch Expands
See video samples of Ad-Dispatch's AR technology.

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