Intuitive intraoral scanning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12370025-B2
Application number	US-202217880563-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 3, 2022
Priority date	Aug 6, 2021
Publication date	Jul 29, 2025
Grant date	Jul 29, 2025

Abstract

An intraoral scanning system includes an intraoral scanner and a computing device. The computing device receive a plurality of intraoral scans from the intraoral scanner during an intraoral scanning session; registers the plurality of intraoral scans together based on overlapping features of the plurality of intraoral scans; generates a first three-dimensional (3D) surface based on the plurality of intraoral scans; receives one or more additional intraoral scans; determines that the one or more additional intraoral scans fail to satisfy one or more registration criteria for registering to at least one of the plurality of intraoral scans or the first 3D surface; and generates a second 3D surface based on the one or more additional intraoral scans.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An intraoral scanning system, comprising:
an intraoral scanner, configured to generate a plurality of intraoral scans during an intraoral scanning session; and
a computing device, wherein the computing device is to:
receive the plurality of intraoral scans during the intraoral scanning session;
register the plurality of intraoral scans together based on overlapping features of the plurality of intraoral scans;
generate a first three-dimensional (3D) surface based on the plurality of intraoral scans;
receive one or more additional intraoral scans;
determine that the one or more additional intraoral scans fail to satisfy one or more registration criteria for registering to at least one of the plurality of intraoral scans or the first 3D surface;
generate a second 3D surface based on the one or more additional intraoral scans without interrupting the intraoral scanning session;
estimate, after failing to satisfy the one or more registration criteria, a position and orientation of the second 3D surface relative to the first 3D surface without successful registration of the second 3D surface or the first 3D surface to historical scan data and based at least in part on use of a trained machine learning model; and
output the first 3D surface and the second 3D surface to a display, wherein the second 3D surface is output with the estimated position and orientation relative to the first 3D surface.

2. The intraoral scanning system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is further to:
receive a plurality of additional intraoral scans;
register the plurality of additional intraoral scans to the one or more additional intraoral scans;
update the second 3D surface based on the plurality of additional intraoral scans; and
determine an update to the position and orientation of the second 3D surface relative to the first 3D surface, wherein the update increases an accuracy of the relative position and orientation of the second 3D surface and the first 3D surface.

3. The intraoral scanning system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is further to:
receive movement data from an intraoral scanner that generated the plurality of intraoral scans and the one or more additional intraoral scans, wherein the movement data indicates an amount of movement of the intraoral scanner between generation of a first intraoral scan of the plurality of intraoral scans and a second intraoral scan of the one or more additional intraoral scans; and
determine at least one of a position or orientation of the second 3D surface relative to the first 3D surface based at least in part on the movement data.

4. The intraoral scanning system of claim 3 , wherein the movement data is generated by an inertial measurement unit of the intraoral scanner, wherein the orientation of the second 3D surface relative to the first 3D surface is determined based on the movement data, and wherein the computing device is further to:
receive a plurality of two-dimensional (2D) images during the intraoral scanning session, wherein each of the plurality of 2D images is associated with one of the plurality of intraoral scans or one of the one or more additional intraoral scans;
estimate a position change between at least a first scan of the plurality of intraoral scans and the one or more additional intraoral scans using two or more of the plurality of 2D images; and
determine a position of the second 3D surface relative to the first 3D surface based on the estimated position change.

5. The intraoral scanning system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is further to:
receive a plurality of two-dimensional (2D) images during the intraoral scanning session, wherein each of the plurality of 2D images is associated with one of the plurality of intraoral scans;
determine, based on a result of the registering, a position change or an orientation change between at least two 2D images of the plurality of 2D images;
determine, based on timing for the at least two 2D images and based on at least one of the position change or the orientation change, at least one of a rate of position change or a rate of orientation change;
receive one or more additional 2D images, wherein each of the one or more additional 2D images is associated with one of the one or more additional intraoral scans; and
determine, based at least in part on a timing of the one or more additional 2D images and at least one of the rate of position change or the rate of orientation change, a position and orientation of the second 3D surface relative to the first 3D surface.

6. The intraoral scanning system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is further to:
input a first input based on the first 3D surface into the trained machine learning model, wherein the trained machine learning model outputs first canonical position coordinates for a first position and orientation of the first 3D surface relative to a canonical position of a jaw; and
input a second input based on the second 3D surface into the trained machine learning model, wherein the trained machine learning model outputs second canonical position coordinates for a second position and orientation of the second 3D surface relative to the canonical position of the jaw.

7. The intraoral scanning system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is further to:
receive a plurality of two-dimensional (2D) images during the intraoral scanning session, wherein each of the plurality of 2D images is associated with one of the plurality of intraoral scans;
receive one or more additional 2D images, wherein each of the one or more additional 2D images is associated with one of the one or more additional intraoral scans;
input a first input based on at least a subset of the plurality of 2D images into the trained machine learning model, wherein the trained machine learning model outputs first canonical position coordinates for a first position and orientation of the first 3D surface relative to a canonical position of a jaw; and
input a second input based on at least a subset of the one or more additional 2D images into the trained machine learning model, wherein the trained machine learning model outputs second canonical position coordinates for a second position and orientation of the second 3D surface relative to the canonical position of the jaw.

8. The intraoral scanning system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is further to:
input an input based on the first 3D surface and the second 3D surface into the trained machine learning model, wherein the trained machine learning model outputs the relative position and orientation of the second 3D surface and the first 3D surface.

9. The intraoral scanning system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is further to:
receive a further intraoral scan;
determine that the further intraoral scan satisfies the one or more registration criteria for registering to at least one of the one or more additional intraoral scans or the second 3D surface;
determine that the further intraoral scan satisfies the one or more registration criteria for registering to at least one of the plurality of intraoral scans or the first 3D surface; and
register the first 3D surface with the second 3D surface using the further intraoral scan.

10. The intraoral scanning system of claim 9 , wherein the computing device is further to:
merge the first 3D surface and the second 3D surface into a combined 3D surface.

11. The intraoral scanning system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is further to:
determine one or more reasons that the one or more additional intraoral scans failed to satisfy the one or more registration criteria for registering

Assignees

• Align Technology Inc

Inventors

• Saphier Ofer
• Ayal Shai
• Agniashvili Pavel
• Veryovkin Pavel
• Volgin Maxim

Classifications

• A61B1/00172

  with means for scanning · CPC title

• A61B1/24

  for the mouth, i.e. stomatoscopes, e.g. with tongue depressors; Instruments for opening or keeping open the mouth · CPC title

• G06T2210/41

  Medical · CPC title

• G06T2207/30036

  Dental; Teeth · CPC title

• G06T2207/20036

  Morphological image processing · CPC title