Patent ID: 8737706
Filing Date: 2014-05-27
Classification: A61B,G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for detecting indications of dental caries in an image of a tooth, the method comprising: fitting a first active shape model to the image to identify a part of the image representing an outside edge of the tooth, the first active shape model including at least one shape vector, wherein each shape vector for the first active shape model comprises a concatenation of points along the outside edge of the tooth; fitting a second active shape model to the image to identify a part of the image representing at least part of a dentine-enamel junction, the second active shape model including at least one shape vector, wherein each shape vector for the second active shape model comprises a concatenation of points along the dentine-enamel junction, wherein said second active shape model represents a statistical model of grey-level structure around the dentine-enamel junction, and wherein fitting the second active shape model is initialized based on the fitted first active shape model; wherein each of the first and second active shape models comprise a respective point distribution model that describes allowed modes of variation of shape vectors which are used to represent shape; the method further comprising: analyzing image variations in an area of the image to detect said indications of dental caries, the area of the image representing a part of the tooth and being defined with reference to the fitted model; and generating data indicating the presence of dental caries based upon said analyzed image variations.