TheShape Sensing

The Shape Sensing Company (TSSC) develops fiber optic shape sensing technology that measures the full 3D shape of a flexible medical device along its entire length in real time. Embedded optical fiber sensors let manufacturers track how catheters, guidewires and scopes bend and twist inside the body without fluoroscopy or external electromagnetic tracking. The company sells the sensing layer as a platform of sensors, processing systems and integration software to medical device makers rather than selling a finished clinical product itself. Its engineering foundation traces back to NASA, and it targets cardiology, endoscopy, orthopedics and robotic-assisted surgery.

Continuous, radiation-free awareness of a flexible instrument's entire length, measured from sensors inside the device rather than by intermittent X-ray imaging or an external tracking field, which also yields a continuous data stream usable for robotic control and increasingly autonomous surgical workflows.