US 11,930,154 B2
Ray tracking for intraoral 3D scanner
Ofer Saphier, Rechovot (IL); Tal Levy, Rehovot (IL); Gal Peleg, Kiryat-Ono (IL); Eliran Dafna, Beer-sheva (IL); Sergei Ozerov, Yerevan (AM); Tal Verker, Ofra (IL); Nir Makmel, Tel Aviv (IL); and Yossef Atiya, Modiin-Maccabim-Reut (IL)
Assigned to Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Jan. 18, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/156,349.
Application 18/156,349 is a continuation of application No. 16/910,042, filed on Jun. 23, 2020, granted, now 11,563,929.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/953,060, filed on Dec. 23, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/865,878, filed on Jun. 24, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0156173 A1, May 18, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04N 13/204 (2018.01); G01B 11/25 (2006.01); G06T 7/521 (2017.01); H04N 1/00 (2006.01)
CPC H04N 13/204 (2018.05) [G01B 11/25 (2013.01); G06T 7/521 (2017.01); H04N 1/00018 (2013.01)] 27 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An intraoral scanning system, comprising:
an intraoral scanner comprising one or more cameras and one or more structured light projectors, the intraoral scanner to generate a series of images using the one or more cameras, each image including at least a portion of a pattern projected by the one or more structured light projectors onto an intraoral three-dimensional surface; and
a processor to:
run a correspondence algorithm to compute respective three-dimensional positions of a plurality of features of the pattern on the intraoral three-dimensional surface, as captured in the series of images;
identify the computed three-dimensional position of a detected feature of the pattern as corresponding to a particular projector ray r, in at least a subset of the series of images; and
track the particular projector ray r across the series of images.