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US 9,844,426 B2Granted
Digital dental tray
AssigneeAlign Technology, Inc.
InventorsYossi Atiya, Avi Kopelman, Erez Lampert
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A digital dental tray system is described including a dental tray shaped to at least partially surround a plurality of teeth and a plurality of three-dimensional (3D) optical imaging elements attached to the dental tray. Each of the 3D optical imaging elements comprises a structured light projector to project a light pattern onto one or more teeth of the plurality of teeth and a camera to capture an image of the one or more teeth.
Claims18
A system comprising:
- a dental tray shaped to at least partially surround a plurality of teeth;
- a first plurality of three-dimensional (3D) optical imaging elements attached to the dental tray, wherein each of the first plurality of 3D optical imaging elements comprises:
- an illumination device to project light onto one or more teeth of the plurality of teeth;
- and
- a camera to capture an image of the one or more teeth;
- a first thermal sensor to detect a first temperature of the dental tray;
- a second thermal sensor to detect a second temperature of an oral cavity;
- and
- a controller to:
- determine that the first temperature of the dental tray is lower than the second temperature of the oral cavity;
- activate the illumination device for one or more of the first plurality of 3D optical imaging elements, and
- adjust the first temperature of the dental tray to cause the first temperature of the dental tray to approximately match the second temperature of the oral cavity based on optical heating caused by the illumination device for the one or more of the first plurality of 3D optical imaging elements.
9 more elements
A system comprising:
- a dental tray shaped to at least partially surround a plurality of teeth;
- a first plurality of three-dimensional (3D) optical imaging elements attached to the dental tray, each of the first plurality of 3D optical imaging elements to capture an image of one or more of the plurality of teeth with a field of view that at least partially overlaps with a field of view of another of the first plurality of 3D optical imaging elements;
- a plurality of illumination devices to project light onto the plurality of teeth;
- a first thermal sensor to sense a temperature of the dental tray;
- a second thermal sensor to sense a temperature of an oral cavity;
- and
- a controller to adjust a setting of the plurality of illumination devices to use optical heating to control the temperature of the dental tray, cause the temperature of the dental tray to approximately match the temperature of the oral cavity and mitigate condensation on the dental tray.
4 more elements
A system comprising:
- a dental tray shaped to at least partially surround a plurality of teeth;
- and
- a first plurality of three-dimensional (3D) optical imaging elements attached to the dental tray, each of the first plurality of 3D optical imaging elements to capture an image of one or more of the plurality of teeth with a field of view that at least partially overlaps with a field of view of another of the first plurality of 3D optical imaging elements,
- wherein the dental tray comprises a plurality of channels through the dental tray between an internal surface of the dental tray and an external vacuum port, wherein the plurality of channels are to apply, at a plurality of locations on the internal surface of the dental tray, a vacuum having sufficient suction to secure an optically clear disposable contamination control film to the internal surface of the dental tray without tearing the optically clear disposable contamination control film, wherein the optically clear disposable contamination control film does not impact imaging quality or geometry of images generated by the first plurality of 3D optical imaging elements.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.