Ocutrx Technologies, through R&D division Genius Labs, has revealed a huge surgical innovation: The ability to make blood look translucent in real-time during surgery with HemoLucence.

The patent-pending technology lets surgeons see through pooled blood without needing suction or irrigation. HemoLucence will be a feature of the OR-Bot 3D surgical microscope system, which is scheduled for clinical trials in 2025 or 2026.

HemoLucence is powered by Ocutrx’s proprietary algorithmic artificial intelligence (AI) and digital engine, integrated into OR-Bot. The tech uses digital volumetric reconstruction and advanced de-scattering algorithms to visualize obscured anatomy under the blood.

In tests, the system successfully visualized through three millimeters of whole human blood, which includes all major blood components. In future tests, Ocutrx expects to be able to visualize under at least half an inch of blood.

Diving deeper, HemoLucence overcomes blood opacity through advanced computational physics, which helps understand how light behaves when it passes through blood-filled areas. Although it works well from one viewpoint, the technique gets more accurate results by collecting images from different angles. This helps it distinguish between light being absorbed by blood and light being scattered by red blood cells.

New, advanced algorithms employ sophisticated statistical methods and neural networks to extract detailed images of tissue structure and texture, even in places where blood would normally impede the view.

“Having the ability to render blood ‘transparent’ now makes the unseen, in the heat of surgical battle, seen, creating another layer of safety and confidence for surgeons that traditional visual aids can’t provide,” said Dr. Leonel Hunt, MD, Ocutrx Medical Advisor and attending surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Spine Center and Cedars-Sinai Orthopedic Center in Los Angeles. “My primary areas of research interest involve the development of new surgical technologies and innovative surgical and non-surgical treatments for spine-related neck and back pain, and this is an important new one.”

“In operating room imaging, seeing through blood in real-time during a surgery has been a long-sought-after tool, considered not just difficult, but impossible, and with current microscopes fundamentally unachievable,” said Jordan Boss, Chief R&D Officer and Director of the Ocutrx Genius Labs. “At Ocutrx Genius Labs, we saw what others viewed as a barrier—blood obscuring vision during surgery—as a challenge to overcome. While traditional systems can’t see through blood, our OR-Bot uses AI-driven algorithms to cut through the scatter and reconstruct a clear 3D view of what’s underneath, including vessels, nerves, bleed sites, and even tumors. This breakthrough transforms surgical visibility and precision. It’s our commitment to bold innovation in medical imaging, AR/XR, and 3D tech that drives everything we do.”