Dr. Takeo Kanade has officially joined the Proprio Advisory Board. Proprio is a Seattle-based company that is currently working to develop imaging and mixed reality technology that will make it easier for surgeons to carry out more complex procedures. 

To that end, Kanade is a computer vision and robotics specialist who currently serves as the U.A. and Helen Whitaker Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

“It has become clear that robotic-assisted surgery is the next wave of surgical performance,” said Proprio Co-Founder and CEO Gabriel Jones. “Imaging and navigation need to advance to fully enable it.”

Proprio’s solution seeks to improve on current surgical practices, which force surgeons to look at a separate 2D screen in the middle of the operation if they want to reference the surgical path mapped out ahead of the operation. The old tech is distracting, and frequently needs to be adjusted to account for complications like tissue movement in the body.

Proprio, on the other hand, is essentially trying to place a mixed reality display in the surgeon’s field of vision. The technology would allow them to view critical information without taking their eyes away from the patient.   

“Vision systems are critical to surgical performance, and the Proprio team has integrated robotics and computer vision in a novel way to address the shortcomings of conventional technologies,” said Kanade. “I look forward to working with them to bring their first system to market and develop future systems to improve both surgical efficiency and accuracy.”

Kanade has published more than 300 academic papers, and is credited with multiple achievements in facial recognition and surgical robotics, including the creation of “virtualized reality.”

A recent IEEE survey found mixed support for surgical robots. Proprio’s technology suggests that humans will continue to be an essential part of the medical process, even as AI plays a more important role during diagnosis and other medical procedures.