METHOD FOR REAL-TIME VISUALIZATION OF CARIES CONDITION

• US 20090185712A1
• Filed: 01/22/2008
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carestream Dental Technology Topco Limited
• Original Assignee: CareStream Health Incorporated
• Inventors: Spinelli, Gary M., Inglese, Jean Marc, Wong, Victor C., Burns, Peter D., McLaughlin, Paul O.
• Granted Patent: US 8,866,894 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0088 for oral or dental tissue
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30036 Dental; Teeth
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/187 involving region growing; involving region merging; involving connected component labelling

Abstract

A method for displaying live video of a tooth identifies a tooth tissue region in a viewable image frame obtained from a video stream and processes pixel data within the tooth tissue region to identify a suspected caries site. Intensity values for pixels that correspond to the suspected caries site are modified and a highlighted viewable image frame is formed as a combination of the modified intensity values corresponding to the suspected caries site and other pixel values in the viewable image frame. The highlighted viewable image frame is displayed in video form.

Claims

1. A method for displaying live video of a tooth comprising:

a) identifying a tooth tissue region in a viewable image frame obtained from a video stream;

b) processing pixel data within the tooth tissue region to identify a suspected caries site;

c) modifying intensity values for pixels that correspond to the suspected caries site;

d) forming a highlighted viewable image frame as a combination of the modified intensity values corresponding to the suspected caries site and other pixel values in the viewable image frame; and

e) displaying the highlighted viewable image frame in video form.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein processing pixel data comprises subtracting a fixed value from the data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein modifying intensity values generates a synthetic color not normally found within human mouth tissue.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein processing pixel data comprises comparing a pixel data value against one or more threshold values.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the pixel data comprises processing pixel data from a single color plane.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the pixel data comprises comparing a pixel data value from a first color plane against one or more threshold values and wherein modifying intensity values comprises modifying a pixel data value from a second color plane.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising sub-sampling the pixel data within the viewable imaging frame prior to processing pixel data to identify a suspected caries site.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein modifying intensity values comprises multiplying the data by a constant value.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein modifying intensity values comprises subtracting or adding a constant value from one or more pixel values in the viewable imaging frame.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein steps of processing pixel data, modifying intensity values, and forming a highlighted viewable image comprise processing each pixel data value within the tooth tissue region by testing the pixel data value against a darkness threshold and, if the pixel value is less than the darkness threshold, adding a first value to the pixel data value in at least a first color plane, forming the highlighted viewable image thereby.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising testing the pixel data value against a brightness threshold and, if the pixel value exceeds the brightness threshold, subtracting a first value from the pixel data value in at least a second color plane.

12. A method for displaying live video of a tooth comprising:

a) obtaining a viewable image frame from a video stream;

b) processing a first color plane of the viewable image frame by;

(i) identifying a tooth tissue region within a first color plane of the viewable image frame;

(ii) processing selected pixels within the tooth tissue region of the first color plane to generate pixel values that are indicative of one or more caries sites;

c) modifying a second color plane of the viewable image frame by combining the generated pixel values from b) with corresponding pixel values of the second color plane;

d) re-combining the first and second color planes, and any additional color planes, to provide a highlighted viewable image frame for video display.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein processing a first color plane comprises obtaining a fluorescence image from the viewable image frame.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein processing selected pixels comprises the step of inverting pixel values within the viewable image frame.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein processing a first color plane comprises obtaining a reflectance image from the viewable image frame.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the fluorescence image frame is generated from combined processing of reflectance and fluorescence image captures.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the reflectance viewable image frame is obtained with white light illumination.

17. A method for displaying live video of a tooth comprising:

a) obtaining a reflectance viewable image frame from a reflectance video stream;

b) obtaining a fluorescence viewable image frame from a fluorescence video stream;

c) processing a first color plane of the fluorescence viewable image frame by;

(i) identifying a tooth tissue region within a first color plane of the fluorescence viewable image frame;

(ii) processing selected pixels within the tooth tissue region of the first color plane to generate pixel values that are indicative of one or more caries sites;

d) modifying a second color plane of the reflectance viewable image frame by combining the generated pixel values from b) with corresponding pixel values of the second color plane from the reflectance viewable image frame to form a highlighted viewable image frame; and

e) displaying the highlighted viewable image frame.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the fluorescence image frame is generated from combined processing of reflectance and fluorescence image captures.