(A recap of the Global Tech Podcast with Michael Waitze and Structure CEO Ravi Shah)

Capturing 3D data of the physical world used to require massive, expensive machinery. Today, a 12-person startup out of Boulder, Colorado, is doing it with an iPad.

On a recent episode of A Global Tech Podcast, host Michae Waitzel sat down with Ravi Shah, CEO of Structure, to discuss how mobile 3D sensing is quietly transforming medical manufacturing and healthcare accessibility worldwide.

What is Structure?

Structure is a platform company that creates specialized 3D sensing hardware and a robust software SDK. While modern Apple devices come with great built-in sensors (like LiDAR and TrueDepth), Structure’s dedicated hardware ensures a highly precise, consistent 1 mm RMS error tolerance—critical for clinical environments where calibration can't afford to vary from device to device.

"When you make your own hardware, you can compress it for the use case that you have... it helps us get a more accurate, more consistent output for our developers and our partners." — Ravi Shah

Real-World Impact: From Plaster Molds to Instant 3D Scans

Structure powers over 300 apps serving 5 million patients a year. Ravi shared two profound use cases that highlight how this tech is changing the game:

1. Real-Time Neurosurgery Planning

A South Korean partner, Skia—originally a VR  video game studio—transitioned into medical tech using Structure's platform. Now, clinicians use an iPad to scan a patient's head right outside the operating room. The software merges the scan with existing CT or MRI data, rendering a real-time 3D visualization of internal anatomy (like veins and brain structures). This cuts significant time out of the operating room and helps educate patients before surgery.

2. Custom Orthotics & Prosthetics in Under a Minute

Traditionally, fitting a prosthetic limb required messy, awkward plaster molds or stepping into foam boxes. With Structure, clinicians (from the Mayo Clinic to Doctors Without Borders in austere environments) can scan a body part in less than a minute. The digital model is instantly ready to be 3D printed into a perfectly custom socket. Remarkably, 17 out of 20 prosthetics and orthotics applications within the US Veterans Affairs (VA) system are built on Structure's platform.

Disrupting Medical Device Economics

Beyond clinical utility, Structure is shifting the economics of health tech innovation by dramatically lowering the barrier to entry for shipping 510(k) FDA-approved medical devices:

Metric	Traditional Industry Average	With Structure Platform
Development Cost	$54 Million	$5 Million
Time-to-Market	11–13 Years	Under 5 Years

The Tech Stack: Old-School Geometry Meets Modern AI

When asked about the role of Artificial Intelligence in their stack, Ravi offered a refreshing, practical perspective. Structure doesn't rely on massive, trendy frontier models. Instead, they pair geometric computer vision for certainties (like flat planes and straight lines) with machine learning for uncertainties (like identifying facial landmarks when a patient's ears are obscured by hair).

Crucially for healthcare, the entire system is heavily optimized for mobile. Data can live entirely on-device, ensuring strict HIPAA compliance and patient privacy without requiring cloud transmission.

The Vision for a Multi-Device Future

Looking ahead, Ravi envisions a multi-device future where computing answers questions before we even know how to ask them—whether that's diagnosing a leaky sink or mapping a surgical field.

While big tech companies race to map the world to build the next massive contextual advertising platform, Structure is content operating behind the scenes, providing the foundational tech to ensure global healthcare providers can deliver faster, cheaper, and better care.

Read our recent blog to learn more about the Structure Sensor.