Publicly sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) of the German government, Surgical Audio Guidance (SURAG) aims at introducing a new perception into minimally-invasive surgery. SURAG provides intraoperative feedback for the surgeon in order to make procedures more precise and safe – for the benefit of the patient. We address a so far unmet clinical need of the minimally invasive laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgery: the absence of haptic and tactile information and navigation-related, supplementary feedback during surgery. In contrast to the existing trend of more complex, expensive and special tailored instruments, SURAG uses existing instruments, turns them into intelligent devices and creates a new perception for the surgeon.
