Gregg E. Favalora
Entrepreneur & Electro-optical Engineer
What I'm Up To
 
Founder & CTO: Actuality Medical, Inc. (Actuality Systems) Bedford, MA: 1997-present
Hologram-like 3-D display hardware and 3-D software for cancer treatment planning and guidance. Visualization tools spanning the world's highest-resolution "crystal ball" volumetric 3-D display to award-winning technology for radiation oncology.
 
Researching and developing 3-D display technologies since 1988. Recent honors include being a Technology Review magazine's "TR-100" top young innovator, an inventor on eight patents in the field of optics, a frequent invited speaker on a variety of topics listed below, and a winner of the MIT $50k Entrepreneurship Competition (1997).
 
I've contributed to several "world's-first" product development efforts, including: the highest-resolution volumetric 3-D display (100 Mvoxels), the highest-resolution single-projector 2-D display (19.7 Mpix), and the flat-panel 3-D display with the most views (198).
 
At Actuality, my roles have followed a founding-CEO / CTO trajectory, more recently: IP portfolio management, investor and customer communications, product and engineering management, and securing and managing over $2 million in government and industry contracts and over $10 million in investment.  Have worked with customers and examined their workflows in the fields of: medical imaging (diagnostic and interventional radiology; interventional imaging, e.g. radiation oncology), oil & gas (geophysics), molecular modeling, military C4I, and MCAD.
Contact Me
favalora [at] gmail.com
Education
Yale University, B.S. Electrical Engineering, with distinction in the major (1996)
Harvard University, S.M. Engineering Sciences (1998)
 
Professional development in optics (Univ. Rochester) and product management.
Patents
U.S. Pat. 7,283,308: "Optical systems for generating three-dimensional images" with O. S. Cossairt, M. Thomas, and R. K. Dorval.  Aerial-image displays using multiple relays.
 
U.S. Pat. 7,023,466: "Three-dimensional display systems" with J. Napoli and M. Halle.
Quasi-holographic displays synthesizing nearly arbitrary 3-D light fields.
 
U.S. Pat. 6,940,653: "Radiation conditioning system," with J. Napoli and D. Oliver.
Broad patent that includes view-sequential floating-image 3-D displays.
 
U.S. Pat. 6,570,681: "System and method for dynamic optical switching using a diffractive optical element," with R. K. Dorval.
 
U.S. Pat. 6,512,498: "Volumetric stroboscopic display."
 
U.S. Pat. 6,487,020: "Volumetric three-dimensional display architecture."
Possibly the first swept-screen 3-D display capable of occlusion.
 
U.S. Pat. 6,183,088: "Three-dimensional display system," with A. G. LoRe and M. Giovinco
 
U.S. Pat. 5,936,767: "Multiplanar autostereoscopic imaging system."
Parallel raster-scanned volumetric display, the result of my undergrad design thesis. [Link]
Publications
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 [article CID number pending] (2008). IN PRESS. [PDF]
 
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, [article CID number pending] (2008). IN PRESS [PDF]
 
O. S. Cossairt, J. Napoli, S. L. Hill, R. K. Dorval, and G. E. Favalora, "Occlusion-capable multiview three-dimensional display," Appl. Opt. 46, 1244-1250 (2007).  Note: this paper was published in Applied Optics and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA.  The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website:
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ao-46-8-1244.  Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law. [PDF]
 
G. E. Favalora, "Volumetric 3D Displays and Application Infrastructure," Computer 38(8), pp. 37-44 (Aug. 2005). [PDF: 751 kB]
 
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). [PDF]
 
G. E. Favalora, "Spatial 3D: The Death of the Pixel," OE Magazine (Jan. 2004). [link]
 
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). (mod. Apr. 2002). [PDF: 2.2 MB]
 
G. Favalora and D. M. Hall, "Volumetric 3-D Displays: optical / bandwidth requirements," EE Times, (Nov. 2001). [link]
 
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. Merritt, Stephen A. Benton, Proc. SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 4297, pp. 227-235 (2001). [link]
 
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, "Guerilla Survival Tactics: A Top-10 List on How to Survive While Searching for Cash," July 2000.  A tutorial for Entrepreneur America. [link]
2008: Finalist for Saatchi & Saatchi "World Changing Ideas" Award (PerspectaRAD)
2007: PerspectaRAD wins Society of Information Display's "Display Application of the Year"    .  Perspecta featured in CSI:NY autopsy lab during Season 4.
2006: 02138 magazine, "The Master of Spin"
2004 - present: SPIE / IS&T conference committee, Stereoscopic Displays and Applications
2003: Perspecta wins a Product of the Year award from Electronic Products magazine.
2002: Actuality Systems's product featured on CNN Headline News, NECN,  Boston Business Journal, Advanced Imaging, Boston Magazine, The Boston Globe...
2001: Actuality Systems, Inc.'s technology featured in Wired, NY Times, Darwin, Optics.org, Mass High Tech, Fast Company online, Boston.Internet.com, Computer Graphics World, Microdisplay Report, NASA Tech Briefs Online News, and others
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 (PDF of entire article)," a group of 100 of the top young innovators driving the future of technology
1996: BFGoodrich / National Inventors Hall of Fame's Collegiate Inventors Competition winner
1996: Yale University's Edward O. Lanphier Memorial Prize for superior accomplishment and initiative in research in a field related to electricity and its applications
1995: Yale University's Belle and Carl Morse Junior Prize for outstanding scholarship and participation
Honors
Presentations
    1.    SIGGRAPH - Panel Discussion, The Ultimate Display: What Will It Be? (2005; 2.5 MB PPT, view full-screen)
    2.    Yale Entrepreneurial Society (2004)
    3.    DARPA: Workshop on Advanced Military Displays (2003)
    4.    US Display Consortium: High Information Content Symposium (2003)
    5.    SID (Society for Information Display) (2003)
    6.    IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (2002)
    7.    NEOSA: New England Chapter of the Optical Society of America (2002)
    8.    AeroSense 2002 - Displays for Defense Applications (2002)
    9.    Future Forward (2001)
    10.    MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge: Strategic Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century (2001)
    11.    Photonics West: Stereoscopic Displays and Applications (2001)
    12.    Garage.com: Bootcamp for Startups, "On the Firing Line" (1999)
    13.    Harvard Entrepreneur's Club - several
    14.    MIT $50k Entrepreneurship Competition - several
 
Memberships, External Responsibilities, Interests
Conference committee of SPIE / IS&T Stereoscopic Displays and Applications.
 
Reviewer for SPIE Optical Engineering, SID Journal of Display Technology, IEEE VR, and other optical / display publications.
 
Member IEEE, OSA, SPIE.
 
Certified to observe procedures in the O.R.
 
Along with the optical stuff & spending time with family, I enjoy playing the drums, the ancient strategy game "go", contemporary art, geocaching, neuromorphic / biomimetic engineering, and things like: artificial life, complexity theory, and theoretical evolutionary biology.  Also, I aspire to having my not-humorous writing rejected by McSweeney's a second and third time...