Talk:Northern Digital

Comment on notability
This article should not be deleted because it is significant to Canadian technology. NDI is a prospering company from the university of waterloo.

I've added a link from the University of Waterloo page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.97.15.226 (talk) 21:18, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Proposed Change
Hello, I would like to contribute content for the Northern Digital section due to the fact that it contains some incorrect information. As per the advice given here ( WP:SCOIC ), I'd like to make it known that I work for NDI (also known as Northern Digital Inc.). I would be more than happy to contribute information, but understand that I should not edit the content myself and will restrict my edits to the talk page. I'd like to propose the following content (with any necessary edits) be included in place of the Northern Digital description. If you would like to contact me, please leave a message on my talk page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Lycaenidae Lycaenidae (talk) 18:03, 23 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Lycaenidae, I've reviewed this request. Thank you for providing a second reliable third-party source!  I'm leery about including information for which the only source is the NDI website, however.  If you can find more good coverage for your company in third-party publications I would certainly be happy to add them for you.  In addition, if you see any other useful info in these two sources that isn't presently in the article, that's completely appropriate to request as well.--otherlleft 00:12, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Northern Digital Inc. (also known as NDI) is a Canadian company, started in 1981 ,that designs and manufactures 3D real-time measurement solutions used in medical navigation, industrial metrology, and life sciences motion capture applications. NDI’s head office is located in Waterloo, Ontario and has offices in Germany and Hong Kong.

NDI measurement systems use optical or electromagnetic technologies to determine the 3D/6D location and orientation of specially marked objects within a given coordinate system.

Medical Sector
NDI technology is incorporated into medical systems that allow physicians to perform computer-assisted surgery (CAS) (also known as computer assisted intervention, image guided surgery and surgical navigation.

NDI technologies help to achieve this by placing special markers on the key tools used in the procedure as well as on the patient that allow these tools and the patient to be tracked by the a position sensor (such as the Polaris Spectra Position Sensor). Once the position sensor can track the tools and the patient, it can calculate the exact location and orientation of each item. With this location and orientation information known, the physical location of the patient can be aligned with pre-operative MRI data (or other medical images) and the exact location of tools can be tracked relative to the patient's data.

NDI measurement systems are used in a variety of surgeries and medical therapies that require some form of 3D measurement or navigation. Current medical applications that use NDI technologies include:
 * Computer assisted surgery
 * Neurosurgery
 * Spinal surgery
 * ENT (ear, nose, and throat) or Otolaryngology
 * Orthopaedics
 * Radiation Therapy
 * Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
 * Dental Implantology
 * Guided Needle Biopsies
 * Positron emission tomography (PET) Procedures

Industrial Sector
NDI Industrial solutions, such as the OPTOTRAK PROseries, use optical measurement technology to precisely measure points on an object and report the measurements within a digital format that can be used with design and inspection software, such as CAD. NDI Industrial solutions include portable coordinate measurement machine (Portable CMM), dynamic measuring machines, and 3D laser scanning solutions. NDI Industrial solutions are used in applications such as:
 * reverse engineering
 * inspection
 * high-speed part tracking

Life Sciences Sector
NDI Life Sciences systems, such as the OPTOTRAK Certus, are used for research-grade motion capture studies. NDI Life Sciences systems use optical measurement or electromagnetic tracking to precisely measure the locations and movements of objects in real-time. NDI Life Sciences systems are used within research applications, such as:
 * Neuroscience
 * Eye-Head Tracking
 * Biomechanics Research
 * Gait Analysis
 * Motor Control Research
 * Kinesiology
 * Physical Rehabilitation
 * Speech Research
 * Spine Research
 * Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
 * Virtual Reality Applications