A device and method and system for utilizing confocal measurement and an optical arrangement to produce 3D color images. A color measurement optical path and a 3D measurement optical path may coincide at least at an object side of the device, and a minimal amount of light is extracted from a monitoring beam for color measurement without affecting 3D measurement.

An apparatus includes a probe and an illumination unit configured to output light. The apparatus includes a light focusing assembly comprising an image space lens, an object space lens and a focus changing assembly between the image space lens and the object space lens. The light focusing assembly has at least one of the following properties: 1) at least a portion of the focus changing assembly is located at a back focal length of the object space lens, 2) the light focusing assembly is free of moving parts, or 3) the light focusing assembly comprises double telecentric confocal optics. The apparatus includes a detector to measure characteristics of incident light returning from an illuminated patient's teeth and a processor coupled to the detector and configured to generate data representative of a topography of the patient's teeth based on the one or more measured characteristics of the incident light.

Described herein are apparatuses for dental scanning and components of apparatuses for dental scanning. A component of a dental scanning apparatus may include a beam splitter, a transparency and an image sensor. The component may have a first surface and a second surface. The transparency may be affixed to the first surface of the beam splitter, and may comprise a spatial pattern disposed thereon and be configured to be illuminated by a light source of the dental scanning apparatus. The image sensor may be affixed to the second surface of the beam splitter, wherein as a result of the transparency being affixed to the first surface of the beam splitter and the image sensor being affixed to the second surface of the beam splitter, the image sensor maintains a stable relative position to the spatial pattern of the transparency.

A device and method and system for utilizing confocal measurement and an optical arrangement to produce 3D color images. A color measurement optical path and a 3D measurement optical path may coincide at least at an object side of the device, and a minimal amount of light is extracted from a monitoring beam for color measurement without affecting 3D measurement.

The present disclosure provides computing device implemented methods, computing device readable media, and systems for motion compensation in a three dimensional scan. Motion compensation can include receiving three-dimensional (3D) scans of a dentition, estimating a motion trajectory from one scan to another, and calculating a corrected scan by compensating for the motion trajectory. Estimating the motion trajectory can include one or more of: registering a scan to another scan and determining whether an amount of movement between the scans is within a registration threshold; determining an optical flow based on local motion between consecutive two-dimensional (2D) images taken during the scan, estimating and improving a motion trajectory of a point in the scan using the optical flow; and estimating an amount of motion of a 3D scanner during the scan as a rigid body transformation based on input from a position tracking device.

An apparatus for dental imaging comprises a light source for generating light, an optics system for focusing the light, and a probe head. The light source, the optics system and the probe head are arranged such that the light passes through the optics system, passes through the probe head, and exits the probe head. The optics system is configured such that chief rays of the light before entering the probe head are divergent to each other, wherein an angle defined by a marginal ray of an outermost beam of the light is complementary to an angle defined by an extreme off-axis chief ray of the light with respect to the optical axis.

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.

A system comprises alight source to provide light, an optical system comprises focusing optics to focus the light onto a focal surface, a detector to measure returning light that is reflected off of a three dimensional object, a translation mechanism to displace the focal surface along an imaging axis defined by the optical path, and one or more processor. The one or more processor is to generate measurement data comprising coordinates of a plurality of surface points of the three dimensional object based on the measured returning light; adjust the coordinates of the subset of the plurality of surface points along up to three axes to correct the measurement data so as to remove inaccuracies caused by changes in magnification at the focal surface; and generate a three dimensional model of the three dimensional object using corrected measurement data.

A device including a coded pattern for use in dental procedures is provided. Related methods and systems are also provided.

A method and intraoral scanner are provided for detecting topography of the surface by at least partly superimposing a first and a second sub-topography. Each sub-topography is detected by projecting a total measurement pattern onto a respective sub-region of the surface by a projection device. The total measurement pattern has at least two different measurement patterns, each of which has parallel measurement lines, and each of the measurement patterns is assigned to a diffractive optical element, by means of which measurement lines can be generated by light diffraction. The method then provides a first and a second image of each sub-region, a first measurement pattern being projected onto the sub-region of the surface in the first image and a second measurement pattern being projected onto the sub-region of the surface in the second image, and detects the sub-topographies by triangulation in each case.