Augmedics working on augmented reality glasses for medical industry
Augmedics, an Israel-based healthcare startup, is working on augmented reality headsets for surgeons performing spinal surgery. It has developed Vizor, a sort of eyewear with clear glasses, which acts as a heads-up display and gives you greatly enhanced perception instead of making you look away from your patient. The tool can also project your patient’s spine in 3D so that you can locate your tools in real time even if it’s below the skin. It has multiple sensors to detect your head movements as well.
Nissan Elimelech, CEO and co-founder of Augmedics, said that “What we are projecting is the patient’s CT scans. We do not have an active X-ray device that emits X-ray light. But instead, we’re using the patient’s CT scan with a very sophisticated registration process. And then we project a 3D model of the CT scan”. He further added that “The overall system accuracy is about 1.4mm. The FDA requires a level of accuracy below 2mm. The company is still working on FDA approval before it can sell Vizor to hospitals in the U.S. It could still take a year or two. But some surgeons have already tried it”.