Carestream Health, Inc.

Eastman-kodak Company

Carestream Dental Technology Topco Limited

Peter D Burns

Victor C Wong

Rongguang Liang

Mark E Bridges

Paul O McLaughlin

David Lynn Patton

Michael Alan Marcus

Andre Souza

Gustav J Braun

Lawrence Allen Ray

Kurt Michael Sanger

Andrew Charles Gallagher

Kevin Edward Spaulding

Jean-Marc Inglese

James R Milch

Paul James Kane

William J Sehnert

John E Redden

Gary M Spinelli

Sean C Kelly

Theodore F Bouk

Richard T Scott

Jean Marc Inglese

Alex Lopez-Estrada

Kurt M Sangerl

An apparatus for obtaining an image of a tooth having at least one light source providing incident light having a first spectral range for obtaining a reflectance image from the tooth and a second spectral range for exciting a fluorescence image from the tooth. A polarizing beamsplitter in the path of the incident light from both sources directs light having a first polarization state toward the tooth and directs light from the tooth having a second polarization state along a return path toward a sensor, wherein the second polarization state is orthogonal to the first polarization state. A first lens in the return path directs image-bearing light from the tooth toward the sensor, and obtains image data from the portion of the light having the second polarization state. A long-pass filter in the return path attenuates light in the second spectral range.

Apparatus for caries detection

A method for displaying live video of a tooth identifies a tooth tissue region in a viewable image frame obtained from a video stream and processes pixel data within the tooth tissue region to identify a suspected caries site. Intensity values for pixels that correspond to the suspected caries site are modified and a highlighted viewable image frame is formed as a combination of the modified intensity values corresponding to the suspected caries site and other pixel values in the viewable image frame. The highlighted viewable image frame is displayed in video form.

Method for real-time visualization of caries condition

A method and apparatus for generating a color mapping for a dental object. The method includes generating a transformation matrix according to a set of spectral reflectance data for a statistically valid sampling of teeth. Illumination is directed toward the dental object over at least a first, a second, and a third wavelength band, one wavelength band at a time. For each of a plurality of pixels in an imaging array, an image data value is obtained, corresponding to each of the at least first, second, and third wavelength bands. The transformation matrix is applied to form the color mapping by generating a set of visual color values for each of the plurality of pixels according to the obtained image data values and according to image data values obtained from a reference object at the at least first, second, and third wavelength bands. The color mapping can be stored in an electronic memory.

Dental shade mapping

A method for suppressing noise in a diagnostic 3-D image, executed at least in part on a logic processor, captures, at each of a number of projection angles, 2-D image projection data, wherein each 2-D image projection has a central pixel and arranges the 2-D image projection data to form a 3-D data set. Each of the 2-D image projections is processed by performing a diffusion filtering process that obtains a homogeneity value for the 3-D data set, generates a diffusion conductance function according to an intensity gradient between adjacent digital image elements, and applies the diffusion filtering process to digital image elements according to the obtained homogeneity value, the generated diffusion conductance function, and a weighting value that relates to the distance of each pixel in the projection from the central pixel. The diagnostic 3-D image is reconstructed from the processed 2-D image projections.

Noise suppression in cone beam CT projection data

A method for suppressing noise in a diagnostic image executes one or more iterations of segmenting the image to identify and label one or more regions in the image; and performing selective diffusion on at least one of the one or more labeled regions in the image. A homogeneity value is computed for the region. A diffusion conductance function is generated for the region according to an intensity gradient between adjacent digital image elements within the region. The diffusion process is applied to a plurality of digital image elements within the region.

Noise suppression in diagnostic images

An apparatus for obtaining an image of a tooth having at least one light source providing incident light having a first spectral range for obtaining a reflectance image () from the tooth and a second spectral range for exciting a fluorescence image () from the tooth. A polarizing beamsplitter () in the path of the incident light from both sources directs light having a first polarization state toward the tooth and directs light from the tooth having a second polarization state along a return path toward a sensor (), wherein the second polarization state is orthogonal to the first polarization state. A first lens () in the return path directs image-bearing light from the tooth toward the sensor (), and obtains image data from the portion of the light having the second polarization state. A long-pass filter () in the return path attenuates light in the second spectral range.

A method is disclosed for processing of images to detect dental caries, that includes the following steps. Directing incident light () toward a tooth (), where this light excites a fluorescent emission from the tooth. Obtaining a fluorescence image () from the fluorescent light component (), and obtaining a reflectance image () from the back-scattered light () from the tooth. Applying a color balance operation to the reflectance image. Removing the specular reflectance components from the color balanced reflectance image () to give a back-scattered reflectance image (). Registering the fluorescent image with the back-scattered reflectance image. Combining the registered fluorescent image () with the back-scattered reflectance image to provide a diagnostic image ().

System for early detection of dental caries

An apparatus for imaging a tooth having a light source with a first spectral range and a second spectral range. A polarizing beamsplitter () light having a first polarization state toward the tooth and directs light from the tooth having a second polarization state along a return path toward a sensor (), wherein the first and second polarization states are orthogonal. A first lens () in the return path directs image-bearing light from the tooth, through the polarizing beamsplitter (), toward the sensor (), and obtains image data from the redirected portion of the light having the second polarization state. A long-pass filter () in the return path attenuates light in the second spectral range. Control logic enables the sensor to obtain either the reflectance image or the fluorescence image.

A method of reducing artifacts in a digital radiographic image identifies either a row or column direction for the artifacts in the image data as a predominant direction and obtains a measurement of the image data frequency content that is subject to artifacts from the image content according to the predominant direction. The measurement of image data frequency content subject to the artifacts is tested according to a predetermined threshold. Artifacts are reduced when the predetermined threshold is exceeded by generating one or more suppression factors according to the testing results, decomposing the image content into at least two frequency bands in each row and column direction, applying the one or more suppression factors to modify at least one of the frequency bands, and recomposing the image content by recombining the at least one modified frequency band with one or more other bands into which the image had been decomposed.

Artifact suppression in diagnostic images

A method for adjusting dot-gain for a halftone binary bitmap file comprises inputting a halftone binary bitmap file consisting of binary pixels () to an asymmetric digital filter (). The binary pixels are filtered with the asymmetric digital filter and generates multi-level pixels (). The multi-level pixel are compared to a preset level () and generates a binary pixel output (). The binary pixel output is collected and forms an adjusted halftone binary bitmap file ().

Growing community of inventors

Fairport, NY, United States of America

Peter D Burns