Align Technology, Inc.

Evgeniy Chelishchev

Mikhail Minchenkov

Pavel Agniashvili

Tatiana Kurilova

Konstantin Kryzhanovskiy

An intraoral scanning system comprises an intraoral scanner and a computing device. The computing device receives intraoral scans of a dental site from the intraoral scanner, the intraoral scans comprising at least a first intraoral scan and a second intraoral scan. The computing device determines, for each point in the second intraoral scan based on a first comparison of the first intraoral scan to the second intraoral scan, whether the point is a back-face point or an uncovered point. The computing device determines a region comprising a plurality of points in the second intraoral scan that are uncovered points, determines whether the region satisfies one or more removal criteria, and removes the region from the second intraoral scan responsive to determining that the region satisfies the one or more removal criteria.

Intraoral scanning system that removes excessive materials from intraoral scans

A method includes determining the following for each point in a second intraoral scan based on a comparison of a first intraoral scan to the second intraoral scan: whether a surface normal at the point is co-directional with a viewing direction associated with the first intraoral scan, wherein points in the second intraoral scan that have a surface normal that is co-directional with the first viewing direction are back-face points; and whether the point is behind a corresponding point in the first intraoral scan, wherein points in the second intraoral scan that are not behind corresponding points in the first intraoral scan are uncovered points. The method further includes determining a region comprising a plurality of points in the second intraoral scan that are uncovered back-face points, determining that the region satisfies one or more removal criteria, and removing the region from the second intraoral.

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Moscow, Russia

Evgeniy Chelishchev