Intraoral scanner with fixed focal position and/or motion tracking
AssigneeAlign Technology, Inc.
InventorsErez Lampert, Adi Levin, Tal Verker
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for measuring a surface topography of a patient's teeth may include an optical probe, a light source configured to generate incident light, and focusing optics configured to focus one or more wavelengths of the incident light to a fixed focal position external to the optical probe, wherein the fixed focal position is fixed relative to the optical probe. The apparatus may further include a light sensor configured to measure a characteristic of returned light generated by illuminating the patient's teeth with the incident light and a processing unit operable to determine the surface topography of the patient's teeth based on the measured characteristic of the returned light.
Claims22
An apparatus for measuring a surface topography of a patient's teeth, the apparatus comprising:
- an optical probe;
- a light source configured to generate incident light;
- focusing optics configured to focus one or more wavelengths of the incident light to a fixed focal position external to the optical probe, wherein the fixed focal position is fixed relative to the optical probe;
- a light sensor configured to measure a characteristic of returned light generated by illuminating the patient's teeth with the incident light;
- and
- a processing unit operable to determine the surface topography of the patient's teeth based on the measured characteristic of the returned light.
An apparatus for measuring a surface topography of a patient's teeth, the apparatus comprising:
- an optical probe;
- a light source configured to generate incident light;
- focusing optics configured to focus the incident light to one or more focal position external to the optical probe;
- a light sensor configured to measure a characteristic of returned light generated by illuminating the patient's teeth with the incident light;
- a motion tracking device configured to collect motion data during measurement of the characteristic of the returned light;
- and
- a processing unit operable to determine the surface topography of the patient's teeth based on the measured characteristic of the returned light and the motion data.
A method for measuring surface topography of a patient's teeth using an optical probe, the method comprising:
- generating incident light by a light source;
- focusing, using focusing optics, at least a first wavelength component of the incident light to a fixed focal position relative to an optical probe while measuring the surface topology of the patient's teeth;
- and
- measuring a characteristic of returned light that is generated by illuminating the patient's teeth with the incident light for one or more of a plurality of different relative positions or a plurality of different relative orientations between the optical probe and the patient's teeth in order to measure the surface topology of the patient's teeth.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.