GREGG FAVALORA
GREGG FAVALORA
Optics & 3-D
I founded one of the most widely publicized companies in the sector of electronic display: Actuality Systems - see retrospective here. From 1997-2009, we pioneered: high-detail volumetric displays (Perspecta), a breakthrough 198-view autostereo system, a 20 megapixel 2-D display, and the application of hologram-like imagery to cancer treatment planning and oil & gas.
12 years, 20 patents, (and $15M financing) later, we sold the company to the optical consulting firm OPTICS FOR HIRE, where I am Principal. Our clients range from Fortune 100 companies to startups. They are innovators wishing to stay at the top of their fields in: medical devices, illumination (LEDs, light pipes), optical toys, geometrical optic design, robotics, machine vision, and patent aggregation and litigation.
We sold most of the Actuality / OFH patents again in winter, 2012.
Email: favalora (at) gmail.com
AND NOW, a printer-friendly version:
NEW STUFF (August 2012)
1.Quoted in Boston Globe
2.Elevated to SPIE Senior Member
3.Cover Story: Autostereo 3-D in Photonics Spectra magazine
4.Co-chair of the Premier Conference on 3-D Innovation: SD&A (SPIE / IS&T)
5.Invited lecturer for MIT Media Lab courses: Camera Culture and Imaging Ventures
6.What's hot in 3-D (IEEE Trans. Broad.)
About Me
Electro-optical systems entrepreneur
& Expert in 3-D display technologies
> Principal, Optics for Hire (2009 - )
> Founder, Actuality Systems (1997-2009)
> Technology Review "TR-100" Young Innovator
GREGG FAVALORA (Bedford, MA)
Principal, Optics for Hire
Founder and Former CEO & CTO, Actuality Systems
Entrepreneur. Specialist in autostereoscopic 3-D displays since 1988
Optical systems consultant at Optics for Hire (Arlington, MA)
Medical devices - lens systems - LED illumination - Patent + M&A Due Diligence
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*3-D Displays *
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Founded Actuality Systems (d/b/a Actuality Medical)
Autostereo 3-D display hardware and 3-D software for visualization, including cancer treatment planning. These include: Perspecta and various quasi-holographic displays (see Ollie's great overview here). Retrospective on Actuality in SID's Information Display.
I've contributed to several "world's firsts" product development efforts:
*The highest-resolution volumetric 3-D display (100 Mvoxels)
*The highest-resolution single-projector 2-D display (19.7 Mpix)
*The flat-panel autostereo display with the most views (198 views @ XGA each)
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*Entrepreneurship *
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At Actuality: IP portfolio creation, investor and customer relations, product and engineering management, securing over $2 million in government and industry contracts and $10 million in private investment.
Medical imaging (diagnostic and interventional radiology), oil & gas, molecular modeling, military C4I, and MCAD.
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*Optical Systems Consultant *
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Optics for Hire has offices in 3 countries. Direct contributor or manager of time- and quality-critical projects: zoom lenses, LED light guides, ophthalmoscope patent review, various fluorimeters, 2-D and 3-D toys, M&A due diligence (Radiant ZEMAX merger), animal imager redesign, laser rangefinders, advanced projects in small- and large-scale 3-D display, patent litigation support
EDUCATION
Harvard University ('96-'98)
S.M. Engineering Sciences
Yale University ('92-96)
B.S. Electrical Engineering
Distinction in the Major
PRESENTATIONS
(Note: Here are a few recent ones summarizing current progress in autostereoscopy. Previous audiences have included: SIGGRAPH, Future Forward, MIT Media Lab "Imaging Ventures" and "Camera Culture," Yale Entrepreneurial Society, DARPA Workshop on Advanced Military Displays, US Display Consortium: High Information Content Symposium, SID, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, New England Section of the OSA, Garage.com, MIT $50k Entrepreneurship Competition)
* Primer on autostereo displays - Free YouTube classes (2009)
* Many autostereoscopic displays: coming soon
* Projection Summit 2011: coming soon
PUBLICATIONS
G.E. Favalora, "Hitting every angle with autostereoscopic 3-D displays," Photonics Spectra, 46(5), (May, 2012).
N.S. Holliman, N.A. Dodgson, G.E. Favalora, and L. Pockett, "Three-Dimensional Displays: A Review and Applications Analysis," IEEE Trans. Broadcasting, 57(2), 362-371 (June 2011). [PDF of pre-print]
G.E. Favalora, "Progress in Volumetric Three-Dimensional Displays and Their Applications," in Frontiers in Optics, OSA Technical Digest (CD) (Optical Society of America, 2009), paper FTuT2.
J. Napoli, S.R. Dey, S. Stutsman, O.S. Cossairt, T.J. Purtell II, S.L. Hill, and G.E. Favalora, "Imaging artifact precompensation for spatially multiplexed 3-D displays," in Stereoscopic Displays and Applications XIX, edited by Andrew J. Woods, Nicolas S. Holliman, and John O. Merritt, Proceedings of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 6803, 680304 (2008).
J. Napoli, S. Stutsman, J.C.H. Chu, X. Gong, M.J. Rivard, G. Cardarelli, T.P. Ryan, and G.E. Favalora, "Radiation therapy planning using a volumetric 3-D display: PerspectaRAD," in Stereoscopic Displays and Applications XIX, edited by Andrew J. Woods, Nicolas S. Holliman, and John O. Merritt, Proceedings of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 6803, 680312 (2008).
O.S. Cossairt, J. Napoli, S.L. Hill, R.K. Dorval, and G.E. Favalora, "Occlusion-capable multiview three-dimensional display," Applied Optics 46, 1244-1250 (2007).
(100+ citations) G.E. Favalora, "Volumetric 3D Displays and Application Infrastructure," Computer 38(8), pp. 37-44 (Aug. 2005).
W.-S. Chun, J. Napoli, O.S. Cossairt, R.K. Dorval, D.M. Hall, T.J. Purtell II, J.F. Schooler, Y. Banker, and G.E. Favalora, "Spatial 3D infrastructure: display-independent software framework, high-speed rendering electronics, and several new displays," SPIE Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems XII, ed. Andrew J. Woods, Mark T. Bolas, John O. Merritt, and Ian. E. McDowall, Proc. SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 5664, pp. 302-312 (2005).
G.E. Favalora, "Spatial 3D: The Death of the Pixel," OE Magazine (Jan. 2004).
(100+ citations) G.E. Favalora, J. Napoli, D.M. Hall, R.K. Dorval, M.G. Giovinco, M.J. Richmond, and W.-S. Chun, "100 Million-voxel volumetric display," in Cockpit Displays IX: Displays for Defense Applications, Darrel G. Hopper, Editor, Proc. SPIE Vol. 4712, pp. 300-312 (2002). (edited Apr. 2002)
G. Favalora and D.M. Hall, "Volumetric 3-D Displays: optical / bandwidth requirements," EE Times, (Nov. 2001).
G.E. Favalora, R.K. Dorval, D.M. Hall, M. Giovinco, and J. Napoli, "Volumetric three-dimensional display system with rasterization hardware," SPIE Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems VIII, ed. Andrew J. Woods, Mark T. Bolas, John O. Merrit, Stephen A. Benton, Proc. SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 4297, pp. 227-235 (2001).
G.E. Favalora, D.M. Hall, M.G. Giovinco, J. Napoli, and R.K. Dorval, "A Multi-Megavoxel Volumetric 3-D Display System for Distributed Collaboration," IEEE Globecom 2000 Conference - "Application of Virtual Reality Technologies for Future Telecommunication System" (2000).
G.E. Favalora, "Volumetric 3-D Display of Protein Structure," for IBC Conference on Functional Genomics (Oct. 2000).
G.E. Favalora, "Guerrilla Survival Tactics: A Top-10 List on How to Survive While Searching for Cash," a tutorial for Entrepreneur America (July 2000).
PATENTS
U.S. 8,042,094, "Architecture for rendering graphics on output devices"
Includes: preparing 3-D imagery for display, regardless of display-type
U.S. 7,364,300, "Theta-parallax-only (TPO) displays"
For example, 3-D displays whose imagery floats above a table-top, visible 360 degrees around
U.S. 7,283,308, "Optical systems for generating three-dimensional images"
Aerial image displays using multiple relays
U.S. 7,023,466, "Three-dimensional display systems"
Quasi-holographic displays that synthesize nearly arbitrary 3-D light fields
U.S. 6,940,653, "Radiation conditioning system"
Broad patent that includes view-sequential floating-image 3-D displays
U.S. 6,570,681, "System and method for dynamic optical switching using a diffractive optical element"
U.S. 6,512,498, "Volumetric stroboscopic display"
U.S. 6,587,020, "Volumetric three-dimensional display architecture"
A swept-screen 3-D display capable of occlusion. Possibly the first?
U.S. 6,183,088, "Three-dimensional display system"
U.S. 5,936,767, "Multiplanar autostereoscopic imaging system"
Parallel raster-scanned volumetric display, the result of my undergrad design thesis. Winner of the BFGoodrich Collegiate Inventors Competition (1996).
HONORS / SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
2012: SPIE Senior Member
Significant Sig - Sigma Chi Fraternity
Quoted in Boston Globe article re: MIT Tensor Displays
Quoted in MIT press re: MIT Tensor Displays
Invited author for Photonics Spectra cover story on 3-D display
2011: Co-Chair, SPIE-IS&T Stereoscopic Displays & Applications Conference
Sold majority of ex-Actuality Systems 3-D patent portfolio
Profiled in Boston Globe: "Optics inventor has eye for new technology"
2009: Sold ex-Actuality Systems assets to Optics for Hire (Boston Globe)
Profiled in Mass High Tech
Quoted in The Economist Technology Quarterly
2008: Finalist for Saatchi & Saatchi "World Changing Ideas" Award
2007: PerspectaRAD wins SID's "Display Application of the Year"
Perspecta featured in CSI:NY autopsy lab (Season 4)
2006: Profiled in 02138 magazine, "The Master of Spin"
2003: Perspecta wins Product of the Year from Electronic Products Magazine
2002: Actuality's product featured on: CNN Headline News, NECN, Boston Business Journal, Advanced Imaging, Boston Magazine, Boston Globe, ...
2001: Actuality's technology featured in: Wired, New York Times, Darwin, Optics.org, Mass High Tech, Fast Company online, ...
2000: Invited talk at National Inventors Hall of Fame's induction ceremonies, prior to Steven Wozniak's keynote
1999: Member of Technology Review magazine's "TR100", a group of 100 of the top young innovators
1996: BFGoodrich / National Inventors Hall of Fame's Collegiate Inventors Competition winner (32-laser, swept-volume 3-D display)
Yale Univ.'s Edward O. Lanphier Memorial Prize "for superior accomplishment and initiative in a field related to electricity and its applications"
1995: Yale Univ.'s Belle and Carl Morse Junior Prize for scholarship and participation
MEMBERSHIPS / EXTERNAL RESPONSIBILITIES / "GIVING BACK"
Co-chair of SPIE-IS&T Stereoscopic Displays and Applications Conference
Councilor of the New England Section of the Optical Society of America (2009-'10)
Reviewer for: SPIE Optical Engineering, SID Journal of Display Technology, IEEE VR, and other optical / display publications
Advisor to: Future Forward conference (2010- )
Member: OSA, SPIE
Certification by AORN to observe operating room procedures