Dynamically specifying a view

• US 8,260,591 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2004
• Issued: 09/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Align Technology Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Align Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Kass, Samuel J., Davis, Bradley A., Chillarige, Anil Kumar V., Smith, Malia
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo, Suzanne
• Application Number:
  US10/836,757
• Publication Number:
  US 20050246154A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,050 Days
• Field of Search: 700/105, 703/6
• US Class Current: 703/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06G 7/48 Analogue computers for specific processes, systems or devices, e.g. simulators

Abstract

Systems and methods to provide a UI includes providing a program with a dynamic content to specify a view; and rendering the view based on the dynamic content.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing a user interface (UI) including a program to present a series of panes downloaded from a server, at least one of the panes programmed to display a view of an image of teeth, the image being one of a series of images showing positions of teeth at intermediate steps of a proposed orthodontic treatment plan, each intermediate step corresponding with one of a series of dental appliances, at least one of the panes providing at least one tool to change the view, and at least one of the panes providing a number of questions eliciting user satisfaction with the proposed orthodontic treatment plan based on observations of the images;

receiving responses to the number of questions via the UI;

capturing comments via the UI when the user indicates dissatisfaction in response to one or more of the number of questions, wherein capturing comments includes prompting the user to enter text that includes reasons for the dissatisfaction indicated by the user without including a proposed update to the orthodontic treatment plan;

submitting the comments to a dental company in response to the user indicating dissatisfaction with an aspect of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan;

updating proposed orthodontic treatment plan settings and the view based on the responses and the comments, wherein updating is performed by the dental company; and

submitting the updated proposed orthodontic treatment plan to the dental company for manufacturing the series of dental appliances in response to the user indicating satisfaction with every aspect of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the program includes an animation routine that can step through the series of images showing the positions of the teeth at the intermediate steps of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the series of images include an initial image of the teeth prior to the proposed orthodontic treatment plan, and a final image of the teeth after completion of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the animation routine derives transformation curves to determine the image at a particular intermediate step by invoking a path-generation program.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes checking whether the user wishes to modify the proposed orthodontic treatment plan settings in response to the user indicating dissatisfaction in response to the one or more of the number of questions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein navigation away from a page is prohibited after being prompted until text is entered.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the number of questions are provided by a program with a dynamic content encoded as HTML, and updating the view is controlled by one or more commands each encapsulated in a comment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the image of teeth is a 3D model.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the program provides a dynamic content region to specify one or more view characteristics.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the view characteristics comprise one or more of the following:

camera position, camera named view point, grid enable, grid position, resolution, zoom level, and timebase.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the view characteristics comprise one or more of the following:

tooth overcorrection, dental attachment, interproximal reduction, jaw.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein navigation to a next page of questions is prohibited unless a response is received to every question on a present page, navigation to a next page updating a server with responses to the questions on the present page.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the response to some of the number of questions must be a yes or no.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the response to some of the number of questions may be that the question is not applicable.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein responses are communicated back to a server.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the dental company is a dental appliance fabrication company.

13. A data processing system, comprising:

means for providing a user interface (UI) for obtaining approval to manufacture a series of dental appliances, including a program to present a series of panes downloaded from a server, at least one of the panes programmed to display a view of an image of teeth, the image being one of a series of images showing positions of teeth at intermediate steps of a proposed orthodontic treatment plan, each intermediate step corresponding with one of the series of dental appliances, at least one of the panes providing at least one tool to change the view, and at least one of the panes providing a number of questions eliciting user satisfaction with the proposed orthodontic treatment plan based on observations of the images; and

means for receiving responses to the number of questions via the UI;

means for obtaining feedback on the proposed orthodontic treatment plan including means for prompting the user to enter text in response to the user indicating dissatisfaction in response to one or more of the number of questions, wherein the text includes reasons for the dissatisfaction indicated by the user without including a proposed update to the orthodontic treatment plan;

means for updating proposed orthodontic treatment plan settings and the view based on the feedback, wherein updating is performed by the dental company; and

means for submitting the updated proposed orthodontic treatment plan to the dental company for manufacturing the series of dental appliances in response to feedback indicating user satisfaction with every aspect of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the series of images include an initial image of the teeth prior to the proposed orthodontic treatment plan, and a final image of the teeth after completion of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan.

14. A data processing system, comprising:

a user interface (UI) for obtaining approval to manufacture a series of dental appliances;

a server in communication with the UI, the server including;

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor; and

program instructions provided to the memory and executable by the processor to;

present, at the UI, a series of panes downloaded from the server, at least one of the panes programmed to display a view of an image of teeth, the image being one of a series of images showing positions of teeth at intermediate steps of a proposed orthodontic treatment plan, each intermediate step corresponding with one of the series of dental appliances, at least one of the panes providing at least one tool to change the view, and at least one of the panes providing a number of questions eliciting user satisfaction with the proposed orthodontic treatment plan based on observations of the images;

receive responses to the number of questions via the UI;

capture comments via the UI when the user indicates dissatisfaction in response to one or more of the number of questions, including prompting the user to enter text that includes reasons for the dissatisfaction indicated by the user without including a proposed update to the orthodontic treatment plan;

submit the comments to a dental company in response to the user indicating dissatisfaction with an aspect of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan;

update proposed orthodontic treatment plan settings and the view based on the responses and the comments, wherein updating is performed by the dental company; and

submit the updated proposed orthodontic treatment plan to the dental company for manufacturing the series of dental appliances in response to the user indicating satisfaction with every aspect of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the program instructions include an animation routine to step through the series of images showing the positions of the teeth at intermediate steps of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan.

21. A method to provide a user interface (UI) for obtaining approval to manufacture a series of tooth-moving appliances, comprising:

providing a program with a dynamic content to specify an orthodontic view of an animated series of images showing positions of teeth at intermediate steps of a proposed orthodontic treatment plan, each intermediate step corresponding with one of the series of tooth-moving appliances, the program serving to present a number of panes downloaded from a server; and

rendering the orthodontic view based on the dynamic content, the dynamic content configured to ascertain acceptance of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan;

wherein at least one of the panes comprises at least one tool to change the orthodontic view and at least one of the panes provides a proposed orthodontic treatment plan review, the proposed orthodontic treatment plan review including putting forth a number of proposed orthodontic treatment plan aspects for consideration by a user based on observations of the animated series of images and prompting the user to indicate satisfaction with each aspect of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan prior to approval to manufacture the series of the tooth-moving appliances that implement the proposed orthodontic treatment plan;

wherein the user is prompted, in response to indicating dissatisfaction with an aspect of the proposed orthodontic treatment plan, to provide comments via the UI including reasons for the dissatisfaction without including a proposed update to the orthodontic treatment plan and the user is not allowed to navigate away from a page after being prompted to provide comments.