Dental radiography using an intra-oral linear array sensor
First Claim
1. An apparatus for producing a panoramic X-ray image of a patient'"'"'s teeth, comprising:
- a radiation source;
a movable support member for supporting said radiation source in at least fifty positions outside the patient'"'"'s mouth and moving said radiation source to the at least fifty positions;
an intra-oral sensor for detecting radiation comprising a plurality of pixels disposed in a linear array, said sensor generating output signals representing sensor information corresponding to the amount of radiation arriving at each of the pixels for at least fifty vertical image slices, wherein each of the at least fifty vertical image slices corresponds to a respective one of the at least fifty positions of said radiation source;
a storage medium for storing the sensor information for the at least fifty vertical image slices in a manner that preserves the relationship between each of the at least fifty vertical image slices and the corresponding one of the at least fifty positions of said radiation source; and
image processing circuitry that combines each of the at least fifty vertical image slices into a single composite panoramic image.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for producing a X-ray image of a patient'"'"'s teeth by placing an intra-oral sensor having a plurality of pixels disposed in a linear array inside the patient'"'"'s mouth, and moving a radiation source around outside of the patient'"'"'s mouth. The intra-oral sensor detects the radiation that has passed through the patient'"'"'s teeth and generates corresponding output signals that depend on the amount of radiation arriving at each pixel. The information contained in the output signals is stored and can be used to create an X-ray image of the patient'"'"'s teeth. The intra-oral sensor can be moved about inside the patient'"'"'s mouth in coordination with the movement of the radiation source in order to improve the resulting image quality. This method and apparatus can be used to obtain an X-ray image of any number of teeth, including a panoramic image of all of the patient'"'"'s teeth, in a single, quick, uninterrupted operation.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. An apparatus for producing a panoramic X-ray image of a patient'"'"'s teeth, comprising:
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a radiation source; a movable support member for supporting said radiation source in at least fifty positions outside the patient'"'"'s mouth and moving said radiation source to the at least fifty positions; an intra-oral sensor for detecting radiation comprising a plurality of pixels disposed in a linear array, said sensor generating output signals representing sensor information corresponding to the amount of radiation arriving at each of the pixels for at least fifty vertical image slices, wherein each of the at least fifty vertical image slices corresponds to a respective one of the at least fifty positions of said radiation source; a storage medium for storing the sensor information for the at least fifty vertical image slices in a manner that preserves the relationship between each of the at least fifty vertical image slices and the corresponding one of the at least fifty positions of said radiation source; and image processing circuitry that combines each of the at least fifty vertical image slices into a single composite panoramic image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatus for producing a panoramic X-ray image of a patient'"'"'s teeth, comprising:
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means for providing radiation; means for supporting said radiation-providing means in at least fifty positions outside the patient'"'"'s mouth and moving said radiation-providing means to the at least fifty positions; means for detecting radiation comprising a plurality of pixels disposed in a linear array, and for generating output signals representing the amount of radiation arriving at each of the pixels for at least fifty vertical image slices, wherein each of the at least fifty vertical image slices corresponds to a respective one of the at least fifty positions of said radiation-providing means; means for storing information corresponding to the output signals for the at least fifty vertical image slices; means for controlling the storing of the information on said information-storing means, for the at least fifty vertical image slices, in a manner that preserves the relationship between each of the at least fifty vertical image slices and the corresponding one of the at least fifty positions of said radiation-providing means; and processing means for combining each of the at least fifty vertical image slices into a single composite panoramic image.
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12. An apparatus for producing a panoramic X-ray image of a patient'"'"'s teeth, the apparatus comprising:
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a movable support member upon which a radiation source is mounted, capable of supporting the radiation source in at least fifty positions outside the patient'"'"'s mouth and moving the radiation source to the at least fifty positions; an intra-oral sensor for detecting radiation comprising a plurality of pixels disposed in a linear array, said sensor generating output signals representing sensor information corresponding to the amount of radiation arriving at each of the pixels for at least fifty vertical image slices, wherein each of the at least fifty vertical image slices corresponds to a respective one of the at least fifty positions of the radiation source; a storage medium for storing sensor information for the at least fifty vertical image slices in a manner that preserves the relationship between each of the at least fifty vertical image slices and the corresponding one of the at least fifty positions of the radiation source; and image processing circuitry that combines each of the at least fifty vertical image slices into a single composite panoramic image. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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14. A method of producing a panoramic X-ray image of a patient'"'"'s teeth, comprising the steps of:
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placing an intra-oral radiation sensor comprising a plurality of pixels disposed in a linear array inside a patient'"'"'s mouth; moving a radiation source to at least fifty positions outside the patient'"'"'s mouth in sequence; allowing radiation from the source to pass through the patient'"'"'s teeth and strike the radiation sensor; detecting radiation arriving at the sensor; generating output signals representing sensor information corresponding to the amount of radiation arriving at each of the plurality of pixels of the sensor for at least fifty vertical image slices, wherein each of the at least fifty vertical image slices corresponds to a respective one of the at least fifty positions of said radiation source; storing the sensor information for the at least fifty vertical image slices in a manner that preserves the relationship between each of the at least fifty vertical image slices and the corresponding one of the at least fifty positions of the radiation source; and combining each of the at least fifty vertical image slices into a single composite panoramic image. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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16. An apparatus for producing a panoramic X-ray image of a patient'"'"'s teeth, comprising:
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a radiation source; a movable support member for supporting said radiation source in at least fifty positions outside the patient'"'"'s mouth and moving said radiation source to the at least fifty positions; a intra-oral sensor comprising; a plurality of scintillator elements disposed in a linear array, for converting incident radiation into light, and an optical sensor for detecting light, having a plurality of light-sensitive sensing elements, each of said sensing elements being optically coupled to a scintillator element, for generating output signals representing sensor information corresponding to the amount of radiation arriving at each of said scintillator elements for at least fifty vertical image slices, wherein each of the at least fifty vertical image slices corresponds to a respective one of the at least fifty positions of said radiation source; a storage medium for storing the sensor information for the at least fifty vertical image slices in a manner that preserves the relationship between each of the at least fifty vertical image slices and the corresponding one of the at least fifty positions of said radiation source; and image processing circuitry that combines each of the at least fifty vertical image slices into a single composite panoramic image. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification