From: "Colin Godfrey" Subject: SIGGRAPH/BOSTON at Actuality Systems, Wed. Feb 11. Date: Monday, February 02, 2004 11:27 AM SIGGRAPH/BOSTON Not Your Parents' OpenGL Display Perspecta, the Spatial 3D Visualization system that creates fully interactive volume-filling, walk-around 3D imagery Gregg Favalora Founder, CTO, and VP Product - Actuality Systems, Inc. Wednesday, February 11, 2004 Networking Time at 6:30pm Presentation Starts at 7pm Actuality Systems 25 Corporate Drive, Suite 300 Burlington, MA 01803 Abstract Mr. Favalora will be presenting an overview of his firm's 3D-display technology, Perspecta, which is a combination of software and hardware that generate spatial, 360-degree-viewable, auto-stereoscopic imagery. The Perspecta display creates a 10"-diameter three-dimensional image within a large Lexan dome. Applications include medical imaging, MCAD, military visualization, and oil & gas exploration. The agenda includes a demo of Perspecta, a technical discussion of how it operates (software, hardware, and optics), and a hands-on demonstration of several applications. The Perspecta system is a combination of hardware and software. The hardware, known as a "multiplanar volumetric display," creates 3D imagery using persistence of vision. First, proprietary algorithms and an embedded graphics processing engine start with a 3D data set -- such as a picture of the human skull -- and slice it into 198 radially-disposed planes. Next, using a Texas Instruments DLP(tm) projector at 5,000 frames per second, these images are projected onto a diffusing screen rotating at 893 rpm. The result is a 3D image, refreshed at 30 volumes per second, which is visible 360 degrees around. Other 3D display technologies use methods such as liquid crystal-based shutter goggles, lenticular displays, or other rotating-screen systems. Actuality's Perspecta platform is the world's highest-fidelity spatial 3D display. Goggles aren't required to see the 3D effect, and it offers full parallax. Furthermore, Perspecta is based on open standards like OpenGL, so it seamlessly integrates into a host of existing applications for molecular modeling and MCAD. About the Speaker Gregg Favalora is co-founder, CTO, and VP Product at Actuality Systems, Inc. Gregg began researching 3D displays in 1988. He graduated from Yale in 1996 with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a masters in engineering sciences from Harvard in 1998. Gregg is a winner of the BFGoodrich / National Inventors Hall of Fame Collegiate Inventor's Competition, is a $10k winner of the MIT $50k Entrepreneurship Competition, and is a member of Technology Review magazine's "TR100," a group of 100 of the top technologists under the age of 35. Gregg's research interests include spatial 3D displays, holographic video, and neuromorphic engineering. He holds three patents and has several pending in the fields of 3D display and optical networking. Directions From Route 128 exit 33B (Cambridge Street north bound): Take a right at the second light. This is Corporate Drive. 25 Corporate Drive is the third building on the cul-de-sac. There is plenty of parking in the lot behind the building. The entrance to the parking lot is between the 2nd and 3rd buildings. Our offices are on the third floor, directly across from the main elevator doors. ************************************************************************ SIGGRAPH/Boston Contacts WWW: http://www.siggraph.org/chapters/boston SIGGRAPH/Boston maintains a mailing list for e-mail announcements of meetings. Send e-mail to siggraphdistrib-request@cs.umb.edu if you want be added to or dropped from this list. __