Apparatus and method of texture mapping for dental 3d scanner

A method for color texture mapping to a 3-D contour image of one or more teeth in an intra-oral camera with a monochrome sensor array, comprising:

• obtaining a 3-D mesh representing a 3-D surface contour image of the one or more teeth according to image data recorded from a plurality of views of the one or more teeth, wherein for each of the plurality of views, recording image data comprises generating a plurality of sets of at least three monochromatic shading images by projecting light of at least three different spectral bands onto the one or more teeth and recording the corresponding image data on the monochrome sensor array;
• combining each set of the at least three monochromatic shading images to generate a plurality of 2-D color shading images, where each of the plurality of 2-D color shading images corresponds to one of the plurality of views;
• assigning each polygonal surface in the 3-D mesh representing the 3-D surface contour image of the one or more teeth to one of a subset of the plurality of views;
• grouping 3-D mesh polygonal surfaces assigned to the same view into a texture fragment;
• determining image coordinates for vertices of the 3-D mesh polygonal surfaces in each texture fragment from projection of the vertices onto the view associated with the texture fragment;
• and
• rendering the 3-D mesh with texture values in the 2-D color shading images corresponding to each texture fragment according to the determined image coordinates to generate a color texture 3-D surface contour image of the one or more teeth.