Oral image processing device and oral image processing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12586201-B2
Application number	US-202118016719-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 21, 2021
Priority date	Jul 24, 2020
Publication date	Mar 24, 2026
Grant date	Mar 24, 2026

Abstract

Provided are an intraoral image processing method and an intraoral image processing apparatus. The intraoral image processing method includes obtaining an intraoral image generated by scanning teeth, segmenting teeth of the intraoral image, generating a customized curve based on one or more teeth included in the intraoral image, and obtaining a final position of teeth by arranging teeth segmented from the intraoral image to be aligned with the customized curve.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method of processing an intraoral image, the method comprising:
obtaining an intraoral image generated by scanning teeth; segmenting teeth of the intraoral image; determining a predefined number of reference teeth from among the teeth included in the intraoral image based on predetermined criteria; determining whether to adjust the position of at least one reference tooth, and adjusting the position of the at least one reference tooth, which is determined to be adjusted; generating a customized curve based on the reference teeth including the at least one reference tooth whose position is adjusted, by moving the position of the reference tooth such that an angle formed between the reference tooth and teeth adjacent to the reference tooth is equal to or greater than a certain angle; and obtaining a final position of teeth by arranging teeth segmented from the intraoral image to be aligned with the customized curve.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the segmenting of the teeth of the intraoral image comprises separating the teeth of the intraoral image by using information of teeth included in tooth model data, and obtaining at least one piece of shape information, position information, and number information of each of the separated teeth.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating the customized curve based on the features of the reference teeth including at least one of an outermost point, an uppermost point, or a buccal point of the reference teeth.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the adjusting of the positions of the at least one reference tooth among the reference teeth comprises, when the customized curve generated based on the reference teeth has a concave portion, moving the positions of the reference teeth corresponding to the concave portion.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the adjusting of the positions of the at least one reference tooth among the reference teeth comprises moving a position of two front teeth such that two teeth corresponding to front teeth among the reference teeth are located in parallel.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining of the final position of the teeth by arranging the teeth segmented from the intraoral image to be aligned with the customized curve comprises:
aligning the teeth segmented from the intraoral image based on tooth model data; and moving the teeth aligned based on the tooth model data to be aligned with the customized curve.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the aligning of the teeth segmented from the intraoral image based on the tooth model data comprises rotating the teeth segmented from the intraoral image with reference to directions of teeth of the tooth model data.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the customized curve includes an upper-jaw customized curve, the method further comprising:
generating a lower-jaw customized curve by moving the upper-jaw customized curve by a predetermined distance; and arranging the teeth segmented from the intraoral image to be aligned with the upper-jaw customized curve and the lower-jaw customized curve.

9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising adjusting positions of the upper-jaw customized curve and the lower-jaw customized curve by moving at least one of the upper-jaw customized curve and the lower-jaw customized curve by a certain offset in a Y-axis direction.

10 . An apparatus for processing an intraoral image, the apparatus comprising:
a memory; and a processor configured to execute one or more instructions stored in the memory to obtain an intraoral image generated by scanning teeth, segment teeth of the intraoral image, determine a predefined number of reference teeth from among the teeth included in the intraoral image based on predetermined criteria, determine whether to adjust the position of at least one reference tooth, and adjust the position of the at least one reference tooth, which is determined to be adjusted, by moving the position of the reference tooth such that an angle formed between the reference tooth and teeth adjacent to the reference tooth is equal to or greater than a certain angle, generate a customized curve based on the reference teeth including the at least one reference tooth whose position is adjusted, and obtain a final position of teeth by arranging teeth segmented from the intraoral image to be aligned with the customized curve.

11 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to execute one or more instructions stored in the memory to, in order to segment the teeth of the intraoral image, separate the teeth of the intraoral image by using information of teeth included in tooth model data, and obtain at least one piece of shape information, position information, and number information of each of the separated teeth.

12 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to execute one or more instructions stored in the memory to, in order to adjust the positions of the at least one reference tooth among the reference teeth, when the customized curve generated based on the reference teeth has a concave portion, move the positions of the reference teeth corresponding to the concave portion.

13 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to execute one or more instructions stored in the memory to, in order to obtain the final positions of the teeth by arranging the teeth segmented from the intraoral image to be aligned with the customized curve,
align the teeth segmented from the intraoral image based on tooth model data, and obtain the final positions of the teeth by moving the teeth aligned based on the tooth model data to be aligned with the customized curve.

14 . A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program including at least one instruction for performing an intraoral image processing method by a computer, the intraoral image processing method comprising:
obtaining an intraoral image generated by scanning teeth; segmenting teeth of the intraoral image; determining a predefined number of reference teeth from among the teeth included in the intraoral image based on predetermined criteria; determining whether to adjust the position of at least one reference tooth, and adjusting the position of the at least one reference tooth, which is determined to be adjusted, by moving the position of the reference tooth such that an angle formed between the reference tooth and teeth adjacent to the reference tooth is equal to or greater than a certain angle; generating a customized curve based on the reference teeth including the at least one reference tooth whose position is adjusted; and obtaining a final position of teeth by arranging teeth segmented from the intraoral image to be aligned with the customized curve.

Assignees

• Medit Corp

Inventors

• Kang Dong Hwa
• Kim Du Su
• Lee Sung Hoon

Classifications

• G06T2207/30036

  Dental; Teeth · CPC title

• G06T7/149

  involving deformable models, e.g. active contour models · CPC title

• G06T7/73

  using feature-based methods · CPC title

• G06T7/11 Primary

  Region-based segmentation · CPC title

• G06T7/75

  involving models · CPC title