Patent ID: 8900129
Filing Date: 2014-12-02
Classification: A61B,B33Y

Abstract:
1. An otoscanner comprising: an otoscanner body, the otoscanner body comprising a hand grip, the otoscanner body having mounted upon it an ear probe, a tracking illumination emitter, a plurality of tracking illumination sensors, and a display screen, the otoscanner body having mounted within it an image sensor; the ear probe comprising a wide-angle lens optically coupled to the image sensor, a laser light source, a laser optical element, and a source of non-laser video illumination, the wide-angle lens having sufficient depth of field, the depth of field defined by planes of focus, such that all imaging light on an interior surface of a scanned object is disposed between the planes of focus and in focus at the image sensor; the plurality of tracking illumination sensors disposed upon the otoscanner body so as to sense reflections of tracking illumination emitted from the tracking illumination emitter and reflected from tracking targets installed at positions that are fixed relative to a scanned ear; the display screen coupled for data communications to the image sensor, the display screen displaying images of the scanned ear, the display screen positioned on the otoscanner body in relation to the ear probe so that when the ear probe is positioned for scanning, both the display screen and the ear probe are visible to an operator operating the otoscanner; and the image sensor coupled for data communications to a data processor, with the data processor configured so that it functions by constructing, in dependence upon a sequence of images captured when the scanned ear is illuminated by laser light and tracked positions of the ear probe inferred from reflections of tracking illumination sensed by the tracking illumination sensors, a 3D image of the interior of the scanned ear.