Optical measurement device and related process
12 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An instrument and related process for measuring color, shade, gloss, shape and/or translucence of a tooth. First, the instrument uses searchlight illumination to illuminate a tooth with constant irradiance. Second, the instrument uses colorimetric imaging to collect time-separated frames of different wavelengths of light reflected from a tooth and to combine those frames into a color image. Third, the instrument includes a sanitary shield to establish a reference color and a predetermined distance to a target tooth. Fourth, the instrument provides line-of-sight viewing so an operator may simultaneously view a display of the image on the instrument and the object being measured. Fifth, the instrument is impervious to pollutants because it incorporates a sealed measurement window. Sixth, optical measurements of a tooth taken by a dentist are compared to optical measurements of a prosthetic restoration for that tooth to confirm satisfactory matching of optical characteristics of the tooth and restoration.
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Citations
65 Claims
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1-22. -22. (canceled)
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23. An apparatus for creating an image of an object comprising:
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means for illuminating the object with illumination rays so that the object reflects reflected rays;
a monochromatic image sensor;
means for transmitting X, Y, Z and X′
tristimulus bandwidths included in at least one of the illumination rays and the reflected rays, whereby the image sensor collects a plurality of time-separated frames, each frame associated with one of the tristimulus bandwidths; and
means for combining said plurality of frames to create an image of the object. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
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26-35. -35. (canceled)
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36. An apparatus for measuring the optical characteristics of an object illuminated with incident light and reflecting reflected light comprising:
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means for transmitting time-separated tristimulus bandpass functions of at least one of the incident light and the reflected light;
an image sensor for collecting said time-separated tristimulus bandpass functions of the reflected light; and
a processor to combine and align said time-separated tristimulus bandpass functions into an image representative of the optical characteristics of the object. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. An instrument for acquiring a color image of a tooth comprising:
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a housing;
a light source within said housing providing illumination of the tooth;
an image sensor within said housing for acquiring an image of the tooth; and
tristimulus filter means for selectively filtering the image of the tooth, said filter means including a plurality of tristimulus filters, said filter means further including means for moving said filters sequentially in alignment with said image sensor so that said image sensor acquires time-separated images of the tooth, each time-separated image including pre-selected tristimulus information; and
processor means for combining the time-separated images into a single color image.
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44. (canceled)
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45. A method for determining the optical characteristics of an object comprising:
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illuminating the object with incident light so that light is reflected from the object;
filtering at least one of the incident light and the reflected light;
imaging the reflected light to form a plurality of frames, each frame corresponding to at least one tristimulus bandwidth; and
combining the plurality of frames to create an image of the object including optical characteristic data. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47)
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48-52. -52. (canceled)
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53. A method for creating an image of an object the object illuminated with illumination rays, the object reflecting reflected rays, comprising
transmitting a plurality of time-separated X, Y, Z and X′ - tristimulus bandwidths of at least one of the illumination rays and the reflected rays;
collecting a frame for each of the time-separated tristimulus bandwidths; and
combining the frames into an image including a plurality of points, each of the points having data representative of each of the frames. - View Dependent Claims (54, 55, 56, 57, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65)
- tristimulus bandwidths of at least one of the illumination rays and the reflected rays;
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58-59. -59. (canceled)
Specification