Dental extra-oral x-ray imaging system and method
DCFirst Claim
1. An extra-oral dental x-ray imaging system comprising:
- a. an x-ray source adapted for generating x-rays for exposure of such x-rays to an object to be imaged;
b. an x-ray imaging device adapted for producing multiple frames during at least part of the exposure;
c. a manipulator for moving the imaging device between two consecutive radiated frames during exposure, the moving being of an amount greater than half the width of a pixel in the direction of movement to provide an overlap between consecutive frames of a significant portion of the frame width, the manipulator controlling movement of the x-ray source and the imaging device about at least one rotational axis around which at least one of the x-ray source and imaging device rotates along a spline, the axis being located between the x-ray source focal point and the x-ray imaging device; and
,d. a fast memory having an access and storage speed comparable to a readout speed of the x-ray imaging device, the memory storing and holding substantially all the frames produced, and the stored and held frames being individually selectively accessible.
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Abstract
A multi-layer dental panoramic and transverse x-ray imaging system includes an x-ray source; a digital imaging device capable of frame mode output with a sufficient frame rate; a mechanical manipulator having at least one rotational axis located in a position other than the focal point of the x-ray source; a position detection mechanism for detecting the camera position in 1D, 2D or 3D depending of the complexity of the trajectory; a final image reconstruction mechanism for reconstructing the final images out of the stored frames; a real time storage system such as RAM, hard drive or an drive array able to store all the frames captured during an exposure; and a digital processing unit capable of executing the reconstruction algorithm, such components being interconnected in operational arrangement. The system produces selectively dental panoramic x-ray images, dental transverse x-ray images and dental tomosynthetic 3D images from a frame stream produced by a high-speed, x-ray digital imaging device.
90 Citations
29 Claims
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1. An extra-oral dental x-ray imaging system comprising:
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a. an x-ray source adapted for generating x-rays for exposure of such x-rays to an object to be imaged; b. an x-ray imaging device adapted for producing multiple frames during at least part of the exposure; c. a manipulator for moving the imaging device between two consecutive radiated frames during exposure, the moving being of an amount greater than half the width of a pixel in the direction of movement to provide an overlap between consecutive frames of a significant portion of the frame width, the manipulator controlling movement of the x-ray source and the imaging device about at least one rotational axis around which at least one of the x-ray source and imaging device rotates along a spline, the axis being located between the x-ray source focal point and the x-ray imaging device; and
,d. a fast memory having an access and storage speed comparable to a readout speed of the x-ray imaging device, the memory storing and holding substantially all the frames produced, and the stored and held frames being individually selectively accessible. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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4. An extra-oral dental x-ray imaging system comprising:
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a. an x-ray source exposing x-rays to an object to be imaged; b. an x-ray imaging device suitable for producing multiple frames during at least part of the exposure and a manipulator for moving the imaging device between two consecutive radiated frames during exposure, the moving being of an amount greater than half the width of a pixel in the direction of movement to provide an overlap between consecutive frames of a significant portion of the frame width; and
,c. at least one rotational axis around which at least one of the x-ray source and imaging device rotates along a spline, the axis being located between the x-ray source focal point and the x-ray imaging device; and
wherein the x-ray imaging device has an active area with a long dimension m and a short dimension n and wherein m/n>
1.5 (one point five). - View Dependent Claims (5)
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21. An extra-oral dental x-ray imaging system comprising:
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a. an x-ray source generating x-rays for exposure of such x-rays to an object to be imaged; b. an x-ray imaging device adapted for producing multiple frames during at least part of the exposure; c. a manipulator for moving the imaging device between two consecutive radiated frames during exposure, the moving being of an amount greater than half the width of a pixel in the direction of movement to provide an overlap between consecutive frames of a significant portion of the frame width, the manipulator controlling movement of the x-ray source and the imaging device about at least one rotational axis around which at least one of the x-ray source and imaging device rotates along a spline, the axis being located somewhere between the x-ray source focal point and the x-ray imaging device; and
,d. a processing device for taking inputs of the multiple frames to compose a panoramic image of a layer of the object with a focus depth which is different in a part of the panoramic image from a focus depth corresponding to an analogous part of a predetermined panoramic image. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification