THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the first time in India, the technology powering polarised glasses that popularised 3D-format movies, including Malayalam’s pioneering My Dear Kuttichathan, has found a new calling: helping surgeons see inside the human body.
A collaborative effort of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology (SCTIMST) and Barton Hill Government Engineering College, the platform, named StereoSurge, converts routine CT and MRI scans into high-definition stereoscopic models, allowing doctors to map procedures with greater precision before entering the operating room. It is designed to enhance medical education and research, while also offering potential applications in pre-surgical planning and patient counselling.
The project was conceived as a research initiative by three students of the 2025 information technology batch of the engineering college. After graduation, the team -- comprising Anand S, Radev Krishna M R and Devadathan A -- took the project forward through incubation at SCTIMST-TIMed, the institute’s technology business incubator, and established Feraura Pvt Ltd.
“StereoSurge started as a purely academic research project between Sree Chitra and Barton Hill. Our primary focus is medical education and research, where understanding the depth and spatial relationship of anatomical structures is extremely important,” said Anand, co-founder of Feraura.
Unlike conventional medical visualisation systems that display reconstructed anatomy on a flat screen, StereoSurge uses a dual-projection system based on polarisation technology. Two projectors simultaneously project images onto a specialised silver screen. Viewers wearing 3D glasses in a darkened room can perceive depth and spatial relationships between different anatomical structures. The setup comprises a customised projection unit, a computer, specialised software, a silver screen and 3D glasses.
The system can accommodate around 200 viewers simultaneously, making it particularly useful for medical colleges, where an entire classroom can observe and learn from the same three-dimensional visualisation.
The technology has already entered an institutional setting with the establishment of a dedicated StereoSurge 3D Spatial Medicine Lab at Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College Hospital. Another unit is available at SCTIMST Hospital.
For medical students, the platform could provide a third dimension to anatomy education, alongside textbooks and cadaver dissection. Instead of relying solely on illustrations or mentally reconstructing the human body from a series of flat-scan images, students can examine actual patient scans in three dimension. They can rotate structures 360 degrees, explore different regions and use colour options to distinguish specific tissues and anatomical components.
Anand pointed out that expensive anatomical-visualisation systems such as Anatomage, which can cost more than `1 crore, remain beyond the reach of many institutions. StereoSurge aims to make immersive 3D learning more accessible.
The technology also opens up possibilities for preserving and revisiting rare medical cases. For instance, a complex heart surgery can be converted into a 3D model, stored and used to teach future batches of students. Such case-based learning could be particularly valuable in understanding unusual anatomical conditions and complicated surgical procedures.
Research is another potential area of application. Changes in brain volume associated with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, for instance, could be studied through successive MRI scans and three-dimensional visualisations. In the case of a brain tumour, doctors can examine its relationship with surrounding blood vessels and tissues, rotate the model and explore its spatial extent in greater detail.
