XRlabs Achieves First-in-Human Use of Physical AI on the ORBEYE™ Exoscope Powered by NVIDIA Jetson Thor™

Landmark procedure marks first clinical deployment of NVIDIA Jetson Thor and demonstrates real-time Surgical Intelligence in the operating room

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- XRlabs, the Surgical Intelligence company, today announced at NVIDIA GTC that it has achieved the first-in-human use of real-time physical AI integrated with the ORBEYE™ 4K 3D exoscope during a neurosurgical procedure at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.

The milestone marks the first clinical deployment of NVIDIA Jetson Thor™, NVIDIA's next-generation edge AI computing platform, and is believed to be the first documented use of a physical AI-enabled exoscope in neurosurgery. 

XRlabs has developed the first device-agnostic Surgical Intelligence platform, which integrates real-time AI into active surgical environments to enhance visualization, situational awareness, and workflow while preserving established clinical systems. Running on NVIDIA Jetson Thor, the system processes the live surgical video intraoperatively, enabling computer vision-based instrument tracking, gaze and voice responsive automation with optimized AI inference and intraoperative scene recognition without modification to the ORBEYE™ hardware.

The procedure was performed by Dr. David Langer, MD, Chair of Neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital and Dr. Randy D'Amico, MD, assistant professor of neurosurgery, Zucker School of Medicine.

"We always believed this would be the next way of operating, and now it is here," said Dr. Langer. "This was not incremental progress - this was a meaningful leap forward." Combining advanced exoscope imaging with immersive visualization on Apple Vision Pro, tool tracking and speech control begins to approach the holy grail of operative neurosurgery. Under the demands of the operating room, this technology delivered."

As the platform evolves, XRlabs will continue to refine these foundational capabilities, and adopt the enterprise-grade NVIDIA IGX Thor platform, which offers high performance and functional safety, to support scalable deployment in clinical environments, including:

Intelligent Exoscope Automation
Computer Vision-based tracking of surgical instruments with gaze and voice responsiveness to enable seamless framing, focus control and hands-free capabilities.

Real Time Surgical Video Integration
Edge-based processing of live surgical video on NVIDIA Jetson Thor, preserving the surgeon's native visualization experience while enabling real-time AI inference.

Intraoperative Scene Understanding
Instrument recognition and key anatomical regions to support emerging guidance, workflow optimization, and contextual awareness in the operating room.

Immersive Stereoscopic Viewing
Ultra-low-latency stereoscopic streaming to XR headsets, such as the Apple Vision Pro, for an immersive surgical viewing option.

"This milestone marks the emergence of Surgical Intelligence as a runtime capability inside the operating room," said Ali Haddad, founder and CEO of XRlabs. "By aligning with NVIDIA's three-computer framework for AI training, simulation and runtime, we are embedding intelligence directly into surgical workflows. Our vision is for Surgical Intelligence to become foundational infrastructure across modern surgery."

Important Disclosure

• The XRlabs surgical intelligence platform is an independent, external software and compute integration developed by XRlabs.
• Olympus has not developed, validated, certified, or approved the XRlabs system and does not endorse XRlabs' solution.
• ORBEYE was used as provided by Olympus, without modification. All names of Olympus products such as the ORBEYE, and service marks are the property of Olympus or one of its affiliates.
• XRlabs is responsible for the design, regulatory compliance, risk management, cybersecurity, and performance of its external platform.
• XRlabs' platform is developed and maintained by XRlabs as medical device software (where applicable), using quality and risk management processes appropriate to its classification.
• The platform is under ongoing development. References to future features describe development goals and do not represent commitments regarding performance or availability.

About XRlabs

XRlabs is the Surgical Intelligence company advancing the integration of AI into the operating room. Founded by a neurosurgeon and headquartered in London, XRlabs develops modular, device-agnostic software that embeds AI directly within surgical environments through computer vision and deep learning technologies.

Operating as an external AI layer across surgical systems, XRlabs is defining Surgical Intelligence as a new runtime capability in surgery - designed to integrate with existing medical technologies and enhance intraoperative visualization, awareness and workflow.

Media Contact: 
Julia Gaynor, NOA
[email protected]

SOURCE XRlabs