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Northern Digital Inc.

Company

Established in 1981 and now a subsidiary of Roper Industries, NDI is a worldwide leader in medical measurement solutions. NDI designs and manufactures advanced tracking systems including optical tracking systems Polaris series and electromagnetic tracking systems Aurora and 3D Guidance series. With more than 40,000 systems installed worldwide, the applications cover neuro, orthopedics, intervention, radiotherapy, endoscope, dental, ENT, surgical robotics, and virtual reality where NDI technologies provide the guidance of medical instruments in 3D format on the various medical modalities. NDI is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario of Canada and operates regional offices in Hong Kong, USA and Germany. The company has established strategic partnership with many leading medical device companies and research institutes around the world and has the strong commitment to the innovation and advance of technologies.

Polaris system applies the infrared technology for tracking the infrared markers and reflective spheres which can be attached to the patient, instrument and equipment with the accuracy up to 0.25 mm and the distance up to 3 meters. The models include Polaris Spectra and Vicra systems.
Aurora and 3D Guidance systems are based on the magnetic field to measure the 3D coordinates of a mini sensor coil which can be integrated into the medical instruments such as needle and catheter. These instruments can be tracked in 3D/6D on the 3D medical images real time without line-of-sight problems. The systems provide the accuracy ranging from 0.5 mm to 1 mm with the tracking volume up to 66 cm.