초록 ▼

The invention concerns a device for the confocal measuring of surfaces inside cavities of the body, specially to measure the surface profile (1) of teeth (2) in the mouth cavity. Said device has a probe (3) that can be introduced into the cavity of the body, a light source feeding the probe (3), a d

The invention concerns a device for the confocal measuring of surfaces inside cavities of the body, specially to measure the surface profile (1) of teeth (2) in the mouth cavity. Said device has a probe (3) that can be introduced into the cavity of the body, a light source feeding the probe (3), a detector picking up a light signal (5) and a processor (6) to digitalize the detected signal transforming it into a tridimensional representation. The device is designed using a simple construction and enabling an error free scanning of the surfaces. To this end, the probe (3) is designed as a rotary scanner having at least one deviating device (7) deflecting the light beam (9) in the direction of the surface that is to be measured (1), the deviating device (7) can be positioned in another scanning axis (10) to forward the rotating light beam (9), and the detector (5) comprises a device for sequential or simultaneous scanning of several focal planes, both with regards to specular reflection and to weak scattered light or fluorescent light of the focal plane concerned.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. A device for confocal surface measurement in body cavities comprising:a light source for providing an illuminating beam traveling along an illuminating beam path;a probe that can be introduced into said body cavity, said probe being connected to said light source to rec

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. A device for confocal surface measurement in body cavities comprising:a light source for providing an illuminating beam traveling along an illuminating beam path;a probe that can be introduced into said body cavity, said probe being connected to said light source to receive said illuminating beam;a light-deflecting means carried by said probe for deflecting said illuminating beam in the direction of a surface to be measured;means for rotating said light-deflecting means about an axis of rotation to generate a profile scan of said surface;means for linearly advancing said light deflecting means along a scanning axis extending parallel to said axis of rotation to provide a plurality of said profile scans along said scanning axis, said plurality of profile scans corresponding to a focal plane of said illuminating beam;means for changing the focus of said illuminating beam to scan said surface at a plurality of different focal planes;a detector for receiving specular reflections of said illuminating beam, weak scattered light and fluorescent light from said surface and generating a sampling signal having information from said plurality of profile scans for each of said plurality of focal planes; andprocessing means for digitizing said sampling signal and converting said digitized information into a three-dimensional digital representation of said surface.