An intraoral scanner includes a casing, a light source disposed in the casing, a reflection plate obliquely disposed in the casing for reflecting light of the light source to an object to be scanned through an opening of the casing, a transparent plate, and a receiver adjacent to the light source. A projection optical axis of the light source forms a first oblique angle with a receiving optical axis of the receiver. The receiver receives light after being incident to the object to be scanned and then reflected to the receiver by the reflection plate. The transparent plate is disposed between the light source and the reflection plate or covers the opening. The projection optical axis forms a second oblique angle with a norm of the transparent plate to make a reflection angle range of light reflected by the transparent plate fall outside a receiving angel range of the receiver.

An intra-oral scanning device includes a light source and an optical system, and communicates with a display system. The device provides for more efficient transmission and capture of images. It integrates OCT scanning with RGB-based scanning. In operation, the device is used for recording topological characteristics of teeth, dental impressions, or stone models by digital methods and for use in CAD/CAM of dental restorative prosthetic devices. To that end, the RGB-based scan obtains surface data (e.g., a margin), while the OCT scan penetrates the surface. The two scanners operate from within the same physical housing and preferably at the same time such that only one scanning pass (to obtain all necessary data) is required. The 3D data obtained from the OCT scan is registered with the 3D data obtained from the RGB-based scan by virtue of being captured using a common return path. Preferably, the 3D surface data is used to align the volume data, such that the OCT scan operates over a much sparser scanning volume than would otherwise be required if the OCT scan were carried out separately. In this manner, there is less stitching of data required to build the output images, thereby enabling a “one-pass” operation.

A system for intraoral scanning comprises a scanner to generate image data of a dental site and a computing device. The computing device receives the image data of the dental site, the image data comprising a representation of the dental site and a representation of a reference object at the dental site. The computing device selects library data for the reference object from library data for a plurality of reference objects in a library. The computing device aligns the library data for the reference object with the image data.

According to the invention, a method and system are provided for scanning, and for facilitating scanning of, an intraoral cavity. The target parts of the intraoral cavity that it is desired to have scanned are identified, and the spatial s relationships between a scanning device and the target parts of the intraoral cavity suitable for enabling said target parts to be scanned by said scanning device, are also identified or otherwise determined. These relationships are then displayed, and the displayed relationships are used as a guide for scanning the intraoral cavity.

An intra-oral imaging apparatus for obtaining a contour image of a tooth has a fringe pattern generator energizable to emit a fringe pattern illumination. The fringe pattern generator has (i) at least one structured light source that is energizable to emit a patterned light beam; (ii) at least one reflective element in the path of the emitted patterned light beam and actuable to rotate about an axis to scan the emitted patterned light beam along a tooth surface as fringe pattern illumination. A detector is configured to acquire one or more images of the fringe pattern illumination from the tooth surface. A control logic processor is configured to control the fringe pattern generator for illuminating the tooth and to obtain and process the one or more images acquired by the detector.

An intra-oral scanning device includes a light source and an optical system, and communicates with a display system. The device provides for more efficient transmission and capture of images. It integrates OCT scanning with RGB-based scanning. In operation, the device is used for recording topological characteristics of teeth, dental impressions, or stone models by digital methods and for use in CAD/CAM of dental restorative prosthetic devices. To that end, the RGB-based scan obtains surface data (e.g., a margin), while the OCT scan penetrates the surface. The two scanners operate from within the same physical housing and preferably at the same time such that only one scanning pass (to obtain all necessary data) is required. The 3D data obtained from the OCT scan is registered with the 3D data obtained from the RGB-based scan by virtue of being captured using a common return path. Preferably, the 3D surface data is used to align the volume data, such that the OCT scan operates over a much sparser scanning volume than would otherwise be required if the OCT scan were carried out separately. In this manner, there is less stitching of data required to build the output images, thereby enabling a “one-pass” operation.

An imaging system, device, and method for diagnosing tissue is provided. The system may include one or more light sources (e.g., LEDs) configured to project light in a plurality of wavelengths. A time-of-flight module may be configured to project a modulated light, receive a reflected portion of the modulated light, and/or generate a three-dimensional time-of-flight image based on the received reflected portion of the modulated light. A multispectral camera may be configured to receive a reflected portion of the light and generate a multispectral image based on the received reflected portion of the light. A processor may be configured to identify the time-of-flight image and the multispectral image; generate a data matrix based on combining one or more portions of the time-of-flight image and the multispectral image; and cause the data matrix to be displayed as a three-dimensional image.

An oral scanner including a heating element, a reflecting element and a temperature difference generating element is provided. The temperature difference generating element has a high temperature end and a low temperature end. The high temperature end is connected to the reflecting element to heat the reflecting element, and the low temperature end is connected to the heating element to cool the heating element.

In a method of generating a virtual 3D model of a dental site, scan data comprising an intraoral image is received during an intraoral scan of a dental site. A representation of a foreign object is identified in the intraoral image based on an analysis of the scan data. The intraoral image is modified by removing the representation of the foreign object from the intraoral image. Additional scan data comprising a plurality of additional intraoral images of the dental site is received during the intraoral scan. A virtual 3D model of the dental site is then generated using the modified intraoral image and the plurality of additional intraoral images.

Provided is an intraoral measurement device that enables high-accuracy profilometry with a simple device configuration using a prism.