Claims
- 1. An intra-oral laser digitizer comprising:
a light source having collimating optics configured to generate a collimated beam of light; a scanner optically coupled to the light source and configured to scan the collimated beam along at least two axes; an optics relay coupled to the scanner and configured to relay the scanned, collimated beam towards a remote object to be imaged; an image optics system having an optical axis configured to detect a reflection of the scanned beam from the object at an angle θ with respect to the optics relay and to generate data representative of a surface of the object based on the reflected beam; and a processor coupled to the scanner and the image optics system configured to generate a three-dimensional image of the object based on the data.
- 2. The intra-oral laser digitizer of claim 1 where the light source comprises a laser LED.
- 3. The intra-oral laser digitizer of claim 1 where the scanner comprises a plurality of mirrors.
- 4. The intra-oral laser digitizer of claim 3 where the image optics system comprises:
an image sensor configured to detect a triangulation image of the object, the triangulation image based on a plurality of curves generated by scanning the beam of light on the object during an exposure period; and an imaging lens system configured to focus the plurality of curves on the image sensor.
- 5. The intra-oral laser digitizer of claim 4 where the processor is configured to merge multiple images of the object to generate a three-dimensional map of the object.
- 6. The intra-oral laser digitizer of claim 5 where the object comprises any one of an in vivo dental item, a dental preparation, a dental model, a dental mold, or a dental casting.
- 7. The intra-oral laser digitizer of claim 1 where the scanner comprises a single mirror configured to scan the light along at least two-axes.
- 8. The intra-oral laser digitizer of claim 1 where the scanner comprises a rotatable mirror and a spinning polygon mirror.
- 9. The intra-oral laser digitizer of claim 1 where the scanner further comprises a programmable position controller configured to control the scan of the collimated laser beam in a programmed scan sequence.
- 10. The intra-oral laser digitizer of claim 1 where the known pattern comprises a plurality of curves each is substantially parallel to each other.
- 11. The intra-oral laser digitizer of claim 1 where the laser light source comprises a low coherence light source, the reflected light from the object being compared with light from the low coherence source reflected from a known variable path length.
- 12. The intra-oral laser digitizer of claim 1 further comprising a voice-recognition means for controlling operation of the intra-oral laser digitizer in response to voice commands of an operator.
- 13. A dental imaging system, comprising:
means for generating a collimated laser beam of light; scanner means for generating a multi-axis collimated light beam; beam relaying means for relaying the collimated light beam towards an object to be imaged, the object to be imaged being remotely located from the means for generating a collimated laser beam of light; image capturing means for detecting reflections of the a focused beam projected on an object; and processor means coupled to the scanner means and the image capturing means for generating a three-dimensional image of the object.
- 14. The laser digitizer of claim 13 where the scanning means scans the beam across the object in a selected pattern via beam relaying means.
- 15. The laser digitizer of claim 13 where the image capturing means comprises:
an image sensor configured to detect a triangulation image of the object, where the triangulation image is based on a pattern of scanned lasers dots across the surface of the object during an exposure period; and an imaging capturing relay means to capture a reflection of the pattern from the object and relay the captured reflection to the image sensor.
- 16. The laser digitizer of claim 15 where the beam relaying means comprises an optical relay rod lens.
- 17. A method for generating a three-dimensional visual image of an in vivo object comprising:
generating a multi-axis collimated beam of light, the collimated beam of light being generated remotely from the object; scanning the multi-axis collimated beam of light, from a first position with respect to the object, in a second pattern, where the pattern includes a plurality of substantially parallel curves having curvilinear segments; capturing an image of a reflection of the pattern from the object during an exposure period; and determining a map of the surface of the object based on the captured image.
- 18. The method of claim 17 where the act of scanning further comprises relaying the multi-axis collimated beam of light to an object in oral cavity.
- 19. The method of claim 17 further comprising the acts of:
scanning the multi-axis collimated beam of light, from a second position with respect to the object, in a predetermined pattern, where the pattern includes a plurality of substantially parallel curves having a curvilinear segments; capturing an image of a reflection of the pattern from the object in the second position; and merging the captured image from the first position with the captured image from the second position.
- 20. The method of claim 17 where the second pattern is substantially similar to the first pattern.
PRIORITY AND CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of co-pending provisional application no. 60/457,025 for Intra-Oral Laser Digitizer System For Dental Applications, which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60457025 |
Mar 2003 |
US |