One of the latest advances in the progression to living print - augmented reality - has become a reality in the products of Advocate Communications, Inc.

What that means is that you can now download an app to your smartphone or tablet and it will link some stories and photos in the magazine with digital content such as videos, additional photographs or, in some cases, links to additional online information.

This is, to put it mildly, cutting edge technology.

Advocate Communications Inc., the parent company of The Advocate-Messenger, The Winchester Sun, The Jessamine Journal, The Interior-Journal, and Gloss - The Magazine, is doing this in partnership with Aurasma, a division of Hewlett-Packard, which calls its technology “radical” and says it “represents the future of how we use our mobile devices by bringing the physical and virtual worlds together for the first time.”

Our version is called KY X-tra, and you can download the app for it by going to either the AppStore for Apple products or the Google Play Store for Android. The app is free; we hope you’ll give it a try.

Once you download the app, here’s how it works: Open the app on your tablet or smartphone and aim the camera at one of our photos or graphics that’s marked with a special KY X-tra icon. Just aim your camera toward the photograph, not the icon. Tap the screen once to focus, and when the spinning wheel starts, you're found the aura. Once it begins to play, tap your screen twice and you may move your phone or tablet away from the graphic and watch.

Our KY X-tra app will see significant use in our printed products, merging printed products with additional related materials you can view on your mobile device.

To download the Apple version, go to http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ky-xtra/id557557684?mt=8

To download the Android version go to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aurasma.skinned.ky_xtra&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5hdXJhc21hLnNraW5uZWQua3lfeHRyYSJd