“I just finished a book about the history of the pixel,” Kider says proudly, before admitting, “I’m not at Lori’s level.”

They even speak different languages.

“When I work with people like Joe,” Walters says, “I have to say, ‘OK, talk to me without the deep computer terminology. I’m an historian here.’”

They exemplify the interdisciplinary spirit of SMST by using what Kider calls “a shared mental model.” Walters might describe an object as shiny while Kider will talk about its specular bidirectional reflectance distribution factor.

“The blend of disciplines is why we’re productive,” Kider says. “We’re artists, philosophers, architects, engineers, historians and computer scientists, all working on big societal applications.”

Walters says it like this: “I can go to smart people like Joe with a cool idea and ask if we can bring it to life.”

Their latest project coming to life is called MemoryScan. Once fully developed, the MemoryScan system will allow end-users to go back in time, through virtual or augmented reality, and experience locations the way they once were. It could be Sunset Strip from 50 years ago or a neighborhood from when your parents were growing up. The pilot project, which could be launched in early 2023, will be a virtual drive through Cocoa Beach, Florida, during the Space Program’s heyday from the 1950s into the mid 1970s.

“MemoryScan is as the name suggests,” says Walters. “It’s using the memories that people have of a location and preserving them as a virtual experience for future generations.”

The project has attracted internal grants from UCF and partnerships with companies like Langan Engineering. Most recently, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a grant that will allow MemoryScan to incorporate technology to make it a more vivid experience.

“I’m amazed at how far we’ve come in bringing history to life,” says Walters. It’s an idea that took root in her mind years ago.

The Seeds of MemoryScan

Before earning a Ph.D. from Florida State, Walters studied at Florida Atlantic where she followed up a bachelor’s in U.S. history with a master’s in the same field. One assignment changed her aspirations: a research paper on anything in Florida intriguing enough to justify 25 pages. Walters remembered a drive north on A1A and seeing Cocoa Beach.

“There were still signs up from the 1960s calling it Missileland, USA,” she says. “So, I thought it would be fun to find out what the area had been like when the space program was growing there.”

Her fascination for the city’s past began. Later, ,she went back to Cocoa Beach to conduct oral histories with people who had worked at Cape Canaveral during the space race. She noticed a concrete ramp, the only remnant of the launch complex where John Glenn made history by rocketing into orbit.

“I wondered how the history might be recreated, so it wouldn’t be lost forever,” Walters says.

A thousand miles away, a high schooler in Philly was getting caught up in another world of wonder: Toy Story.

“The way they made the movie through physics and renderings had an impact on what I’m doing today,” Kider says.

What he’s doing with MemoryScan, specifically, started with a phone call from Walters in early 2021. Walters had been talking with longtime Cocoa Beach residents to preserve their memories through audio recordings and written material. One woman, Vivian Lindauer, took Walters on an unforgettable mental tour of the old Missileland.

“She went into amazing detail, right down to the furniture and types of calculators that were used in the iconic Glass Bank [formally known as The First Federal Savings and Loan],” Walters says. “Then she closed her eyes and literally described motels to me as if we were driving up A1A 50 years ago. That’s when I thought, ‘This is what has always been missing from oral histories: Put people in a vehicle, drive around and record history as they describe it.”

After mentally cruising the town with Vivian, Walters met with Kider and asked if it could be done. Can we provide people with prompts and take down the memories as they travel around? Can we track not just the words, but the gestures, the vocal inflections and the long pauses at points of interest? Can we capture so much of their memory that the memory then become a virtual experience for others?

Kider said yes. He suggested using devices to track eye and hand movements, cameras, GPS and crystal-clear audio recordings.

“That’s why I like working in SMST with people who love technology,” Walters says. “They find a way.”

The Future of MemoryScan

During her quest for Cocoa Beach’s experiential history, Walters has collected plenty of mementos. Pictures, blueprints, restaurant menus, hotel logos. They’re used to prime the remembrances of people who were there in the day. The cues are crucial, but the people complete the mosaic.

“They’re the key to everything,” Walters says. “Once they’re gone, any uncaptured memories are gone with them.”

The history of Cocoa Beach and its proximity to UCF have made it an ideal test bed. But Walters and Kider stress that MemoryScan grew from idea to reality because of Vivian Lindauer. When she passed away earlier this year, they gave MemoryScan a code name: Project Vivian.

“Lori always tells me to focus on the people, not on the science,” Kider says. “The code name is a good reminder of that.”

With the funding from NEH, they’ll be able to add depth and vividness to Project Vivian. And then? Walters envisions MemoryScan being used to capture old Miami Beach. Kider imagines his kids seeing where he grew up in Philadelphia.

“As we become older, the memories of our favorite places become more important,” Kider says. “That’s what binds us together because we’re all from somewhere.”

Historians worry that looming plans to develop the Trans World Airlines terminal as a hotel may sacrifice some of the iconic features that earned it a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. Next week, researchers from the ����ֱ�� will lead a team that will use high-tech laser scanners to capture the interior and exterior of the structure before that may happen.

“This is one of the great masterpieces of midcentury architecture,” said researcher Lori Walters of the Institute for Simulation & Training and the Department of History, both at UCF. “We want to preserve it for future generations as it looks prior to any modifications that will be made in the near future.”

The data will be used to create a finely detailed 3-D model of the building designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen that users could virtually explore.

“It will enable you to walk around and interface with the environment, so you’ll be able hear an oral history snippet, see photographs, read documents, learn about the period and what jet travel was like in the 1960s,” Walters said.

Working with UCF history instructor Michelle Adams, Walters has created digital 3-D depictions as varied as the New York State Pavilion from the 1964-65 World’s Fair, NASA’s Saturn V rocket and the Apollo 14 capsule.

They use sophisticated, tripod-mounted scanners that bounce lasers off objects, creating a point cloud  of buildings and objects. Multiple scans are stitched together to create a 3-D depiction accurate down to two millimeters.

At Kennedy Airport, they’ve worked with the Port Authority to gain access to the TWA Flight Center, where scans are expected to start on Monday, June 15, and take five days. They’ll be assisted by a crew from Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, as well as Rutgers ����ֱ�� engineering professor Jie Gong and RU graduate students.

The TWA Flight Center opened in 1962, a year after Saarinen died. Its sweeping wings, use of glass and light, and fanciful interior have long captured the imagination. It was featured in the Steven Spielberg film “Catch Me if You Can” starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

The building has been vacant since 2001, when TWA ceased operations. The Port Authority is reportedly in negotiations with a developer to turn it into a hotel.

Walters, whose research focuses on post-World War II, particularly the 1950s and ‘60s, said the building should be remembered.

“I wanted our next project to be something that was representative of the era, and something that – I don’t want to use the word threatened – but could be changing in the near future,” she said.

Lori Walters, who also serves as an assistant professor of , will lead a team of scanning technicians and 50-60 students for several days of work that will result in a complete 3D historical record of the Fair’s iconic New York State Pavilion.

Walters is doing the project voluntarily with the help of the non-profit organization CyArk which has set a goal of digitally preserving 500 of the world’s most renowned historical sites within five years.

“Giving a new generation of students access not just to the wonders of the Fair but to the wonders of cutting edge technology is beyond exciting,” Walters said.

The researcher has been interested in the Fair since she was a child. She studied history to satiate her thirst for knowledge about the 1950’s and 1960’s, especially the technological advances that occurred during that time.

Her work took a technological leap of its own when she affiliated with IST to reconstruct historical sites such as the launch pads of Cape Canaveral and the World’s Fair in an online format, making them accessible to the world.

For this latest project Walters will bring her FARO Focus 3D laser scanner to New York, which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fair this summer, and teach the middle school students from neighboring Nassau County how to accurately capture the entire Tent of Tomorrow area of the New York State Pavilion. FARO is also providing the team use of one of their new Focus X 330 scanners that has the capability of capturing data as far as 330 meters. A representative from CyArk will assist in scanning and the piecing together or “stitching” of the scans to complete a digital model.

Her unique work has attracted the attention of media focused on the Fair’s anniversary, most recently in the May 27 .

Walters plans to give the data to the New York Parks Department to help preserve the authenticity of the structure should the city decide to either renovate it and to serve as a historical representation if it is ultimately torn down.

“Whatever happens to these historical structures future generations will always have access to them in the form of these scans,” Walters said.

Lori C. Walters, a research associate in the UCF Department of History, was awarded a $1.47 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund a 3D virtual recreation of the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.

Walters’ team utilizes an immersive 3D virtual environment to unfold the sights, sounds, personal memories and lessons of the World’s Fair. Virtual fairgoers of all ages will be immersed in an accurately modeled historical world with more than 140 pavilions on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines and an array of arts and humanities exhibits.

For more, visit the UCF New York World’s Fair Web site.