Gregory Peter Panos (born September 24, 1956) is an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...

, educator, strategic planning consultant, conference / event producer, and technology evangelist in

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

, human simulation,

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...

, performance animation, 3D character animation, human-computer interaction, and

user experience design User experience design (UX design, UXD, UED, or XD), upon which is the centralized requirements for "User Experience Design Research" (also known as UX Design Research), defines the experience a user would go through when interacting with a compa ...

Morton Heilig Morton Leonard Heilig (December 22, 1926 – May 14, 1997) was an American pioneer in virtual reality (VR) technology and a filmmaker. He applied his cinematographer experience and with the help of his partner developed the Sensorama over several ...

, Dr. Phillip Mittleman, Dr. Alexander Schure, and John Whitney Sr. were mentors to Greg during his early exploration of computer graphics as a career path. Greg has also worked as an

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and

production assistant A production assistant, also known as a PA, is a member of the film crew and is a job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production. The job of a PA can vary greatly depending on the budget ...

in several American films including White Trash (1992).

Education

* Theodore Roosevelt High School (Yonkers, New York) – 1974 *

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

–

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

(BSc) ''

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' in Communications and minor in Film – 1978. While at OU, he worked in all aspects of television production for

WOUB-TV WOUB-TV (channel 20) is a PBS member television station in Athens, Ohio, United States. The station's transmitter is located west of the city off SR 56. Its programming can also be seen on satellite station WOUC-TV (channel 44) in Cambridge, w ...

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

TV station based in

Athens, Ohio Athens is a city in Athens County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 23,849 at the 2020 United States census. Located along the Hocking River within Appalachian Ohio about southeast of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Athe ...

, as he also studied electronic music, journalism, and photography. *

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), also known in athletics as Long Beach State University (LBSU), is a public teaching-focused institution in Long Beach, California, United States. The 322-acre campus is the second largest in the ...

(CSULB) – 1994 – As a graduate level instructor in "advanced virtual reality" for the CSULB Media Arts department.

Career

Marketing

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, Greg worked with pioneering computer animation studios MAGI-Synthavision and Digital Effects. While briefly serving as an instructor for basic television production at

New York Institute of Technology The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT or New York Tech) is a Private university, private research university, research university founded in 1955. It has two main campuses in New York (state), New York—one in Old Westbury, on Long I ...

(NYIT) in

Old Westbury, New York Old Westbury is a village in the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 4,671 at the 2010 census. The Incorporated Village of Old Westbury ...

, he was recruited into CGL, Inc. (the newly created commercial venture) to market, forecast and plan strategy to spin off technology developed at the legendary NYIT Computer Graphics Lab. While at NYIT Greg rubbed shoulders with many CGL veterans including Lance Williams, Pat Hanrahan,

Carter Burwell Carter Benedict Burwell (born November 18, 1954) is an American film composer. He has frequently collaborated with the Coen brothers, having scored most of their films. He has also scored films by other directors such as Bill Condon, Todd Haynes ...

Fred Parke Frederic Ira Parke is an American computer graphics researcher and academic. He did early work on animated computer renderings of human faces. Parke graduated from the University of Utah with a BS degree in physics in 1965. He was then a gradu ...

, Peter Oppenheimer and many others.

Engineering

Mr. Panos moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in 1982 to work with GTI Inc. (subsequently acquired by Rediffusion Simulation) as an applications engineer for their novel real-time (computer) image generation system the "POLY2000" which found a place in many aerospace companies including

Rockwell International Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...

. Greg joined the Rockwell

Space Station A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitat ...

Systems Division (SSSD) as a member of the technical staff (MTS) and lead engineer instrumental in creating their premiere visualization /

simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

laboratory to employing real-time, flight simulation technology toward visualization of preliminary designs for early proposals to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

for the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

project. After Space Station, Greg was employed as an applications engineer in the West Coast offices of Star Technologies, Inc. While there, his fellow Star colleagues were Michael T. Jones (current CTO, Google Earth) and

Dave Orton David E. Orton (born 1955) is an American engineering executive and the CEO of GEO Semiconductor Inc. Orton earned a BS in mathematics and economics at Wake Forest University, and a MS in electrical engineering from Duke University. He worked in t ...

former CEO, ATI Technologies.

Consultant

As a consultant to film director

Brett Leonard Brett Leonard (born May 14, 1959) is an American film director, producer and music video Music video director, director specializing in the science fiction and Horror (genre), horror genres. A few of his films such as ''The Lawnmower Man (film ...

during pre-production, Greg was instrumental in helping define some of the key visual props used in the "Lawnmower Man" a seminal film which first used virtual reality as plot vehicle for a major motion picture.

Writer

* Augmented Reality Sourcebook As an author, Greg is writing, editing and will publish the "Augmented Reality Sourcebook" in 2012. This work will be the first comprehensive research directory, forecasting and strategic planning compendium for the emerging field of Augmented Reality, AR App developers, Component suppliers, AR design studios, research labs, consultants, events, publications, seminars, etc. * Virtual Reality Sourcebook As an author, Greg wrote, edited and published the "Virtual Reality Sourcebook" the first comprehensive research directory, forecasting and strategic planning compendium for the emerging market of virtual reality, human-computer interaction and real-time synthetic environment design / production. The evolving document found a home in libraries of many major corporations and institutions aiding their diligence in research and new market development. * Virtual Reality Magazine (Editor) (1994–1996) * Computer Graphics World (Magazine) (freelance writer) * Animation World Network (Magazine) (freelance writer)

Professional organizations

As twice-elected Chairman of SIGGRAPH-LA (in Los Angeles and the largest local chapter for the

SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference centered around computer graphics organized by ACM, starting in 1974 in Boulder, CO. The main conference has always been held in North ...

professional organization) he worked to promote and recognize computer graphics and animation with emerging organizations in the CGI / Visual FX industry for motion pictures / TV, virtual reality, virtual actors and performance animation. Greg also held the title of Co-Chairman for SIGGRAPH-LA in the late 1990s. *

– Professional Member, Chairman Local Chapter * NCGA (National Computer Graphics Association) – Professional Member *

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

(ACM) – Professional Member * Performance Animation Society – Founding Co-Director Greg co-founded the "Performance Animation Society" with Broadway actor / singer Richard Cray in the early 1990s to educate and inform the creative, performing and acting community about the emerging, evolving tools of computer-generated character animation, real-time actor driven performance using motion capture techniques and 3D human digitization to create life-like virtual actors. 1993 Greg produced "A Musical Performance Animation", the first musical, operatic vocal performance by a real-time 3D computer generated character.

Speaking engagements

Greg has been invited to make numerous presentations and demonstrations at major conferences to illustrate the relevancy of virtual reality and computer generated imagery technology to enhance the future of human civilization:
SIGGRAPH 2024 - Beyond Life and Death: Exploring Digital Legacy With Spatial Media, Emerging Technologies, and Evolving Ethics

Augmented Worlds Expo (AWE) 2024
*

VRTO VRTO (Virtual Reality Toronto) was founded in 2015 by Keram Malicki-Sánchez as a Meetup group dedicated to virtual reality in Toronto. In June 2016, VRTO launched the VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo, a professional event ...

2021
Scanning the World into the Metaverse
*

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...

- "Virtualization of Hollywood SuperSession" 1999 *

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

(SAG) - "The Future of Virtual Actors"
Digital Hollywood
2000 *

USC School of Cinematic Arts The USC School of Cinematic Arts is an academic unit of the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles. With a history that dates to the first years of Sound film, talkies, the school descends from America's first ...

World Science Fiction Convention Worldcon, officially the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during Wor ...

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge), is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. With a total enrollment of 36,848 students (as of Fall 2024), it has the ...

(CSUN) 1994 VR Conference * VR & Persons with Disabilities - "Using VR to Document Human Existence" *

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...

(AFI) - "Aspects of Virtual Reality in Film" * Comdex * Virtual Reality World * The Learning Annex *

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(CSULB) *

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degree programs, 122 m ...

Los Angeles Future Salon
– Human Simulation 2003

Current direction

* Persona Foundation In the year 2000, Greg founded the "'
Persona Foundation
''" to further initiatives in human simulation, motion capture, 3D body and facial scanning, digital persona creation and custom platform development / operating system design for human simulation systems.

Works

Filmography

* '' The Wanderers'' (1979) – (as production assistant) * '' The Warriors'' (1979) – (as production assistant) * ''White Trash'' (1992) – (as actor) * '' The Lawnmower Man'' (1992) – (as consultant to director)

Publications

Eternal Echoes: Unlocking the Promise of Virtual Immortality

Humans Enter the Age of Avatarism (2020)
* Augmented Reality Sourcebook (2011- onward) * Virtual Reality Sourcebook (1991–1998) * Virtual Reality Magazine (1994–1996) * Computer Graphics World (Magazine)
Animation World Network Magazine (1998) - "Who's Data is that Anyway"

Papers

– CSUN 1994 VR Conference

References

External links

*
Persona Foundation

Animation World Network (Magazine) - "Who's Data is that Anyway"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Panos, Greg American male actors Ohio University alumni California State University, Long Beach alumni 1956 births People from Bronxville, New York Living people American male writers New York Institute of Technology faculty