System, method and computer program product for three-dimensional (3D) computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) of hearing protection and/or noise reduction ear appliance

A method comprising:

• receiving, from a scanner device, a non-manifold three-dimensional (3D) digital surface model (DSM) scan data representative of a non-manifold 3D surface model of at least an auditory canal and a concha of an ear of a subject in a computational geometry format, the 3D surface model being an outer boundary surface for an earpiece appliance;
• determining an extrema boundary located at a free edge of the non-manifold 3D surface model;
• recognizing anatomical features on the non-manifold 3D surface model including a cymba concha and auditory canal peak;
• modifying the non-manifold 3D surface model relative to the recognized anatomical features by creating a base boundary plane for the earpiece appliance, offset a distance from the extrema boundary;
• creating a closed volume within and between the outer boundary surface, the extrema boundary and the base boundary plane to form a digital data representation of a solid 3D earpiece appliance;
• and
• causing a computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) device to manufacture the solid 3D earpiece appliance based on the formed digital data representative of the solid 3D earpiece appliance.

A tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon which when executed to cause at least one processor to:

• receive, from a scanner, a non-manifold three-dimensional (3D) digital surface model (DSM) scan data representative of a non-manifold 3D surface model of at least an auditory canal and a concha of an ear of a subject in a computational geometry format, the 3D surface model being an outer boundary surface for an earpiece appliance;
• determine an extrema boundary located at a free edge of the non-manifold 3D surface model;
• recognize anatomical features on the non-manifold 3D surface model including a cymba concha and auditory canal peak;
• modify the non-manifold 3D surface model relative to the recognized anatomical features by creating a base boundary plane for the earpiece appliance, offset a distance from the extrema boundary;
• create a closed volume within and between the outer boundary surface, the extrema boundary and the base boundary plane to form a digital data representation of a solid 3D earpiece appliance;
• and
• cause a computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) device to manufacture the solid 3D earpiece appliance based on the formed digital data representative of the solid 3D earpiece appliance.