The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 27, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 04, 1999
Shade Analyzing Technologies, Inc., Darien, CT (US);
Abstract
A digital camera connects to a tooth shade analyzer subsystem, e.g., a digital video processor, and a color display monitor for the electronic determination of the color of patient's teeth. Preliminarily, the camera captures series of digital color images of tooth shades corresponding to reference shade guides, and electronically compares the reference shades to an image of the patient's tooth. In a preferred embodiment the comparison is done over a set of pseudo-pixels, each corresponding to a group of pixels in an high-resolution camera. Once a match is found, it is communicated to a user of the system. In a specific embodiment the camera is equipped with a sleeve and illumination subsystems that help reduce the variations in the color of digital images due to external factors.