Disclosed is a handheld scanner for obtaining and/or measuring the 3D geometry of at least a part of the surface of an object using confocal pattern projection techniques. Specific embodiments are given for intraoral scanning and scanning of the interior part of a human ear.
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1. A scanner for obtaining and/or measuring the 3D geometry of at least a part of the surface of an object, said scanner comprising: at least one camera accommodating an array of sensor elements, a light source for generating a probe light incorporating a spatial pattern, an optical system for trans
1. A scanner for obtaining and/or measuring the 3D geometry of at least a part of the surface of an object, said scanner comprising: at least one camera accommodating an array of sensor elements, a light source for generating a probe light incorporating a spatial pattern, an optical system for transmitting the probe light towards the object thereby illuminating at least a part of the object with said spatial pattern in one or more configurations and for transmitting at least a part of the light returned from the object to the camera, a focus element within the optical system for varying a position of a focus plane of the spatial pattern on the object, an obtaining unit for obtaining at least one image from said array of sensor elements, an evaluating unit for evaluating a correlation measure at each focus plane position between at least one image pixel and a weight function, where the weight function is determined based on information of the configuration of the spatial pattern, wherein the correlation measure is calculated as a dot product computed for each of a plurality of said focus plane positions; a data processor for: determining by analysis of the correlation measure the in-focus position(s) of: each of a plurality of image pixels for a range of focus plane positions, or each of a plurality of groups of image pixels for a range of focus plane positions, and transforming in-focus data into 3D real world coordinates. 2. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the evaluating unit for evaluating a correlation measure is a data processor. 3. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the evaluating unit for evaluating a correlation measure is an optical unit. 4. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the in-focus position for said pixel or group of pixels is determined as an at least local extremum position of an optionally smoothed series of dot products computed for the plurality of said focus plane positions. 5. A scanner according to claim 4, wherein each dot product is computed from a signal vector with more than one element representing sensor signals and a weight vector of same length as said signal vector of weights. 6. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the pattern is varying in time. 7. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the spatial pattern is static. 8. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein said spatial pattern possess translational and/or rotational periodicity. 9. A scanner according to claim 1, comprising at least one light source and a pattern generation unit and wherein light from the light source is transmitted through the pattern generation unit thereby generating the spatial pattern. 10. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the focus plane of the camera is adapted to be moved synchronously with the focus plane of the spatial pattern. 11. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the object is ear canal or a tooth. 12. A scanner according to claim 1, further comprising at least one beam splitter located in the optical path. 13. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the sensor signal is an integrated light intensity substantially reflected from the surface of the object. 14. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the focus plane position is periodically varied with a predefined frequency. 15. A scanner according to claim 1, further comprising at least one focus element in the shape of a single lens, which is part of the lens system and the scanner further comprises an adjusting unit for adjusting and controlling the focus element. 16. A scanner according to claim 15, further comprising a fixing unit for fixing and/or maintaining the center of mass of the focus element adjustment system. 17. A scanner according to claim 1, further comprising a counter-weight to substantially counter-balance movement of the focus element. 18. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the spatial pattern is a static line pattern or a static checkerboard pattern. 19. A scanner according to claim 1, comprising at least one segmented light source. 20. A scanner according to claim 1, further comprising a determining unit for determining the maximum signal value of each of a plurality of the sensor elements over a range of focus plane positions. 21. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the sensor element array is divided into groups of sensor elements. 22. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the image of the spatial pattern is a line pattern or a checkerboard pattern, and is aligned with the rows and/or the columns of the array of sensor elements. 23. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein at least one spatial period of the spatial pattern corresponds to a group of sensor elements. 24. A scanner according to claim 1, further comprising a polarizing element. 25. A scanner according to claim 1, further comprising at least one polarizing beam splitter. 26. A scanner according to claim 1, further comprising a quarter wave retardation plate and a linearly polarizing element located in the optical path. 27. A scanner according to claim 1, further comprising an increasing unit for increasing the extension of the scanned surface in the direction of the optical axis. 28. A scanner according to claim 1, further comprising at least one optical device which is partially light transmitting and partially light reflecting, said 29. A scanner according to claim 1, further comprising a reflective element for directing the probe light in a different direction from the optical axis and a rotating unit for rotating the reflective element. 30. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the scanner is adapted to be handheld, and where the scanner comprises one or more built-in motion sensors that yield data for combining at least two partial scans to a 3D model of the surface of an object, where the motion sensor data potentially is used as a first guess for an optimal combination found by software. 31. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the scanner is adapted to be handheld and where the scanner comprises one or more built-in motion sensors which yield data for interacting with the user interface of some software related to the scanning process. 32. A method for obtaining and/or measuring the 3D geometry of at least a part of the surface of an object, said method comprising the steps of: generating a probe light incorporating a spatial pattern, transmitting the probe light towards the object along the optical axis of an optical system, thereby illuminating at least a part of the object with said spatial pattern, transmitting at least a part of the light returned from the object to the camera, varying the position of the focus plane of the pattern on the object while maintaining a fixed spatial relation of the scanner and the object, obtaining at least one image from said array of sensor elements, evaluating a correlation measure at each focus plane position between at least one image pixel and a weight function, where the weight function is determined based on information of the configuration of the spatial pattern, wherein the correlation measure is calculated as a dot product computed for each of a plurality of said focus plane positions; determining by analysis of the correlation measure the in-focus position(s) of: each of a plurality of image pixels in the camera for said range of focus plane positions, or each of a plurality of groups of image pixels in the camera for said range of focus planes, and transforming in-focus data into 3D real world coordinates. 33. A nontransitory computer readable medium encoded with program code for causing a data processing system to perform the method of claim 32, when said program code is executed on the data processing system. 34. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein the focus element varies the position of the focus plane of the pattern on the object while maintaining a fixed spatial relation of the scanner and the object. 35. A scanner according to claim 1, wherein a respective weight function is given to individual regions of the spatial pattern, and the respective weight function is proportional to an intensity of the respective individual region of the spatial pattern. 36. A method according to claim 32, wherein a respective weight function is given to individual regions of the spatial pattern, and the respective weight function is proportional to an intensity of the respective individual region of the spatial pattern.
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