# Software Development and Cadaveric Testing of Deformable Registration Pipeline in Novel Camera-Projector Surgical Navigation Device

> **NIH NIH R43** · ILLUMINANT SURGICAL, INC. · 2024 · $294,992

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this Phase I project is to build, integrate, and test a deformable registration pipeline for PRISM
in order to make its markerless registration process more robust. PRISM is a camera-projector surgical
navigation tool (SNT) developed by Illuminant Surgical, Inc. that harnesses advances in computer vision and
sensors to provide surgeons with a seamless navigational experience. Importantly, PRISM addresses three
key barriers to universal adoption of SNTs: high acquisition cost by leveraging low-cost, commodity hardware,
long and invasive registration processes by building a markerless alignment algorithm that uses only surface
topography, and unintuitive visualization by utilizing dynamic projection mapping to display critical guidance
information directly onto the surface of the patient’s skin.
Currently, PRISM has established accurate, consistent dynamic projection mapping capabilities through
phantom and cadaveric testing. PRISM also has a markerless registration process in place that can align a
patient’s preoperative radiological imaging with their intraoperative position to display patient anatomy directly
on top of its subdermal location. However, this registration process currently takes into account only rigid
transformations (i.e., translations and rotations). In order to be significantly more robust and applicable to any
sort of skin-surface changes that may occur in the clinical environment between the time a patient completes a
preoperative scan and undergoes a procedure, Illuminant is focusing on building a deformable registration
pipeline that will be able to account for significantly more planes of disturbance in the skin surface and better
predict how that impacts the subdermal anatomy. Aim 1 of this project will be dedicated to the development of
deformable registration software that can be integrated into the current PRISM suite, and Aim 2 will focus on
testing the deformable pipeline on cadaveric specimens. Aim 2 will also serve as a pilot study for a future
cadaveric validation test that will serve as the basis for clearance from the FDA through the De Novo pathway.
PRISM’s first use case is in spinal surgeries, which are often leveraged to treat spinal degenerative disease
and low back pain––diseases that become increasingly prevalent in patients as they age. Given the growing
popularity of these spinal procedures and the fact that they require a high degree of accuracy, tools like PRISM
that provide intuitive visualization and localization of spinal structures in an easy-to-set up and affordable
manner hold great promise. If funded by the NIH SBIR grant, PRISM would be the first device of its kind to
achieve these capabilities and commercialize.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10922438
- **Project number:** 1R43AG085917-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** ILLUMINANT SURGICAL, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** James Hu
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $294,992
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-15 → 2026-01-12

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10922438

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10922438, Software Development and Cadaveric Testing of Deformable Registration Pipeline in Novel Camera-Projector Surgical Navigation Device (1R43AG085917-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-12 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10922438. Licensed CC0.

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