Abstract:
The present invention relates to a dental care device for detection and removal of plaque automatically and independently, comprising: a) a motion controlled and pressure sensitive plaque removal head having at least one array of bristles; b) a plaque detection unit adapted to capture images of the teeth and gums, wherein said plaque detection unit includes an imaging device and a light source with specific wavelength for illumination said teeth and gums; and c) a plaque detection engine adapted to process the captured images in order to detect plaque infected areas on said teeth, and accordingly to generate instructions for automatically guiding said motion controlled plaque removal head, thereby executing all the necessary movements for automatically and independently removing the plaque from said teeth while minimizing abrasiveness by controlling the pressure applied and avoiding brushing to clean areas of the teeth and gums.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to the field of dental care devices. More particularly, the invention relates to an electric motorized toothbrush that focuses on plaque infected areas for efficient and comprehensive brushing. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The use of electrical powered toothbrushes for cleansing teeth is well known. Typically these toothbrushes employ some kind of rotating head able to perform semi-circular or vibrating motions, a brush handle with a hollow space to place batteries, a motorized element and some kind of user interface (either switch buttons or a small user screen). These components together build an electrical toothbrush but they work separately and without any knowhow or knowledge collection. The existing toothbrushes blindly operate based on the user placement in the mouth and regardless if the specific location requires cleaning or more comprehensive plaque treatment. 
     The existing toothbrushes boast the fact that their movable head performs faster and faster circular repetitions but ignore the fact that this can be abrasive to the teeth and gums. Accordingly it is desired to provide an improved electric motorized toothbrush that overcomes the shortcomings described above by automatically detecting the plaque infected areas and furthermore by controlling and monitoring the movements and applied pressure of the brush head to work specifically on the detected areas and prevent abrasiveness to the teeth and gums. Closing the loop between understanding where the plaque resides and enabling the brush head to reach these areas without user intervention enables comprehensive and efficient brushing which is the basis of Smart brushing. 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide a dental care device that automatically detects the plaque infected areas. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide a dental care device that is capable of controlling and monitoring the brush head to work specifically on the plaque detected areas. 
     It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a dental care device that eliminates unnecessary abrasiveness to the teeth and gums. 
     Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a dental care device for detection and removal of plaque automatically and independently, comprising:
         a. a motion controlled and pressure sensitive plaque removal head having at least one array of bristles;   b. a plaque detection unit adapted to capture images of the teeth and gums, wherein said plaque detection unit includes an imaging device and a light source with specific wavelength for illumination said teeth and gums; and   c. a plaque detection engine adapted to process the captured images in order to detect plaque infected areas on said teeth, and accordingly to generate instructions for automatically guiding said motion controlled plaque removal head, thereby executing all the necessary movements for automatically and independently removing the plaque from said teeth while minimizing abrasiveness by controlling the pressure applied and avoiding brushing to clean areas of the teeth and gums.       

     According to an embodiment of the invention, the plaque detection unit is programmed to operate by applying hardware and/or software plaque finder algorithm(s). 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, the plaque finder algorithm involves image processing, edge detection, object detection and proprietary algorithm based on the deflected wavelength produced by the illumination process. 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, the dental care device further comprises a user information processor for providing user video/audio indications while using said device. 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, the user indication includes real time brushing indications when user is asked to place the brush in a new location, timer, quality of brushing, percentage of plaque and over time improvement. 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, the dental care device further comprises two or more linear arrays of bristles, such that a first array of bristles is positioned in a vertical orientation with respect to the other arrays of bristles, thereby providing two or more degrees of freedom. 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, the array of bristles is formed in a rounded manner, a linear manner or combination of both. 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, the plaque removal head is longer than standard and having at least one flexible joint for enabling adjusting the shape of the plaque removal head to match the teeth line and brush several teeth simultaneously and one or more sensor devices for plaque detection. 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, the movements of the flexible joints are passive and are depending only on the joint flexibility. 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, the movements of the flexible joints are active by using one or more motors or actuators. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       In the drawings: 
         FIG. 1A  schematically illustrates a simplified front view of dental care device, according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 1B  schematically illustrates a simplified side view of the dental care device of  FIG. 1A ; 
         FIG. 1C  schematically illustrates a simplified back view of the dental care device of  FIG. 1A ; 
         FIGS. 1D-1F  schematically illustrate possible movements of the plaque removal head of the dental care device, according to some embodiments of the present invention; 
         FIGS. 2A and 2B  is an exemplary view of the internal elements of the dental care device of  FIG. 1A , according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIGS. 3A-3B  schematically illustrate the head region of the dental care device applicable as an undercarriage performing the controlled automatic movements, according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIGS. 4A-4C , a plaque removal head with flexible joints is shown in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 5  schematically illustrates, in a block diagram form, the electrical components of the dental care device, according to an embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 6  schematically illustrates an exemplary top level plaque detection engine of the dental care device, according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is a dental care device that automatically detects plaque infected areas on the teeth and accordingly works to resolve them by controlling and monitoring the movements of a plaque removal element to reach and focus on the contaminated areas thus eliminating abrasive application of the brush by controlling the pressure applied and avoiding areas which do not need brushing enabling comprehensive and efficient cleaning in a shorter time. The dental care device does not imply any particular shape, construction material or geometry, and invention is applicable to all suitable devices that can be implemented in form of an electric motorized toothbrush-like device. 
     Reference will now be made to several embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying figures. Wherever practicable similar or like reference numbers may be used in the figures and may indicate similar or like functionality. The figures depict embodiments of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following description that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein. 
     While certain examples may refer to a dedicated dental care device, other devices can be used as well, such as a special toothbrush. The terms, “for example”, “e.g.”, “optionally”, as used herein, are intended to be used to introduce non-limiting examples. While certain references are made to certain example system components, other components can be used as well and/or the example components can be combined into fewer components and/or divided into further components. 
       FIGS. 1A-1C  show a dental care device that can be used in conjunction with the invention. The device generally indicated by numeral  10  in the figure is in form of an integrative electric motorized toothbrush that comprises a plaque removal head  11  and a body  12  in form of a handle. The body  12  and the head  11  are coupled in a way that allows movement of the head  11  in the linear axis. 
     The plaque removal head  11  is equipped with multiple arrays of bristles placed vertically and horizontally to accommodate the different brushing strokes needed in different areas of the tooth and gums. According to an embodiment of the invention, each array of bristles is controlled separately by a dedicated motor (e.g., each motor can be located on the head  11  itself, or elsewhere along the body of the dental care device  10  that will allow the motor to rotate/vibrate the bristles) thus all the combinations of operation (i.e., activating/deactivating each motor independently, accelerating or slowing by controlling the power and speed of each motor, more advance configuration may also allow to control the height or deflection of array of bristles, etc.) are applicable based on a plaque detection algorithm. Using a plurality of motors allows the bristles to move in any direction (i.e., two or more degrees of freedom). 
     As will be apparent to the skilled person, the plaque removal head  11  can be configured to move in variety of ways. According to some embodiments of the invention, each array of bristles rotates independently to both directions on the x-y plane, as shown with respect to  FIG. 1D . In another embodiment, the whole plaque removal head  11  rotates to both directions around the x axis, as shown with respect to  FIG. 1E . In another embodiment, the whole plaque removal head  11  rotates to both directions around the z axis (i.e., head  11  move right or left), as shown with respect to  FIG. 1F . In this embodiment, the pivot point can be anywhere along the head  11 , arm, or the body of device  10 . 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, back and forth movements of the head  11  are controlled by an additional motor (e.g., a linear actuator that can be placed in the body  12  of the dental care device  10 ). Any suitable motor can be used to control these movements based on the chosen embodiment and implementation. The plaque removal head  11  is equipped with a sensor module such as an imaging device (e.g., a tiny camera), a line scanner, or other optical means, which takes a stream of continues visual data (e.g., images) of the specific area the plaque removal head  11  is located at, and sends the data to a processing unit. 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, the plaque removal head  11  comprises a plaque detection unit  13  and means that facilitates the cleansing of the teeth and gums, such as one or more arrays of tightly clustered bristles, e.g., as indicated by numerals  14 - 16 . In this exemplary implementation, the head  11  is equipped with, but not limited to, an array of horizontal tightly clustered bristles  14  and two arrays of vertical tightly clustered bristles  15  and  16 . Optionally, an array of round tightly clustered bristles can also be employed (not shown).  FIGS. 1B and 1C  show a side and a back view in accordance with the present invention and correlated to  FIG. 1A . 
       FIGS. 2A and 2B  show views of the elements of the dental care device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In this configuration, the arrays of bristles  14 - 16  reside on a chassis  25 , holding the bristles (e.g., on the top side) and a dedicated motor for each array of bristles (e.g., on the other side), respectively as indicated by numeral  141 ,  151  and  161 . For example, the plaque detection unit  13  is located adjacent to the array of horizontal tightly clustered bristles  14  at the edge of head  11 .  FIG. 2A  shows the dedicated motors  141 ,  151  and  161  without the array of bristles. 
     The plaque detection unit  13  includes a Plaque Detection Sensor (PDS)  18  (e.g., a camera) and a light source  19  (e.g., a LED) as shown in further details in  FIGS. 3A and 3B . PDS  18  takes a continuous stream of images controlled by a plaque detection engine  21 . Each image is being processed by the plaque detection engine  21  (e.g., in this embodiment the plaque detection engine  21  is placed in the body  12 ). For example, in this configuration, all the wiring for controlling each dedicated motor  141 ,  151  and  161  separately or passing data between the plaque detection unit  13  and the plaque detection engine  21  can be done in wired manner, e.g., through a set of wiring as generally indicated by numeral  24 . 
     The plaque detection engine  21  receives a continuous stream of images and performs advanced picture processing algorithms on the received each image starting from image stabilization and stitching algorithms to compensate for jitter resulting from the fact that the device is hand held and through color transformation and object edge detection, as will be described in further details hereinafter with respect to  FIGS. 4 and 5 . 
     The result of the picture processing is a set of commands to control the next movement performed by each array of bristles  14 - 16  and the in conjunction with the movement of the head  11  along the x-axis. According to the command each dedicated motor  141 ,  151  and  161  can be activated, stopped, accelerated or slowed. Any combinations of the four dedicated motors  141 ,  151  and  161  are applicable, such as:
         only the upper horizontal dedicated motor is working;   only the bottom horizontal dedicated motor is working;   both horizontal dedicated motors are working;   only the vertical dedicated motor is working;   only the upper horizontal dedicated motor and vertical dedicated motor are working;   only the bottom horizontal dedicated motor and vertical dedicated motor are working;   both horizontal dedicated motors and vertical dedicated motor are working;   only the round dedicated motor is working;   only the round dedicated motor and upper horizontal dedicated motor are working;   only the round dedicated motor and bottom horizontal dedicated motor are working;   only the round dedicated motor and both horizontal dedicated motors are working;   only the round dedicated motor and vertical dedicated motor are working;   only the round dedicated motor, upper horizontal dedicated motor and vertical dedicated motor are working;   only the round dedicated motor, bottom horizontal dedicated motor and vertical dedicated motor are working;   only the round dedicated motor, both horizontal dedicated motors and vertical dedicated motor are working.       

     Being able to control each dedicated motor separately with great precision allows efficient comprehensive brushing while minimizing abrasiveness to the clean teeth areas. 
     The plaque removal head  11  can perform a variety of movements according to the selected embodiment. Back and forth head movements are controlled by but not limited to a linear motor placed in the body  12  (e.g., a brush handle). According to an embodiment of the invention, the PDS  18  is kept clean from any obstacle (water, steam, foam, etc. . . . ) that can interfere with the camera vision and therefore deteriorate the picture&#39;s quality in any number of ways as detailed but not limited to a dedicated wiper (not shown) or any hydrophobic material covering the lens. For example, when the PDS  18  is not active it can be wiped clean by the dedicated wiper. 
     Another embodiment utilizes a plaque removal head equipped with two motorized arrays of bristles. Back and forth head movements are controlled by a dedicated motor placed in the brush handle. The array of bristle can be either round, rectangular or any other shape and are controlled separately by a separate dedicated motor. Both motors can be turned on or off or work completely separately according to the plaque detecting algorithm. Each array of bristles can be placed on the plaque removal head in such a way that they cover the entire tooth length and gum line. In this specific embodiment, the head angular movement up to 45° might be redundant. 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, the dental care device  10  comprises a screen output  22  that can be applied to serve many features and applications including but not limited to user indications such as timer, quality of brushing, percentage of plaque and over time improvement. Other applications can be directed to the children line of products including but not limited to gifs, games, score count. Yet another application can include but is not limited to a real time panoramic view of the entire mouth with color indications to the plaque location serving both the consumer and professional markets. 
     In another embodiment the plaque removal head  11  comprises an undercarriage head  31  that is connected to the body  12  ( FIG. 1 ) in such a way that allows movements in the X-Axis, Y-Axis and Z axis (as shown with respect to  FIGS. 3A and 3B ). The movements of the undercarriage head  31  are fully controlled by the plaque detection engine  21  ( FIG. 2 ) in the length and height of the area being cleaned. The plaque detection unit  13  (e.g., the camera and the LEDs) resides on the undercarriage head  31 . In addition, a replaceable head holding the array of bristles can be connected to the undercarriage head  31  and can be controlled by a dedicated motor as described hereinabove. The array of bristles can be activated, stopped, accelerated or slowed completely independent and without any correlation to the undercarriage placement or movement. 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 4A-4C , a plaque removal head  110  with flexible joints is shown in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. The plaque removal head  110  comprises one or more flexible joints, as indicated by numerals  111 ,  112  and  113 . The flexible joints configuration enables adjusting the shape of the plaque removal head  110  to match the teeth line. Movement of joints around the Y axis can be passive (depending only on the joint flexibility) or active (using motors or actuators). In such configuration, the plaque removal head  110  may include more than one PDS as indicated by numerals  121  and  122 . 
     The head  110  can maximize the brushing efficiency by dividing the mouth into larger areas (e.g., inside, outside and upside of the teeth topology) instead of having to brush teeth after teeth one by one. The entire plaque removal head  110  can still move on the x-axis utilizing a linear motor. Due to its length, the plaque removal head  110  covers a large area of the mouth. The PDS  121  and  122  relay the images to the plaque detector engine which only has to inform if cleaning is finished for the specific area being worked on (e.g., plaque exist=TRUE/FALSE) when the answer is FALSE and indication to the user is given (indication can be either beeping sound, vibration or any other means) to the user to move to the next location. 
     As will be appreciated by the skilled person the arrangement described in the figures results in a tool that applies Smart brushing. Equipped with a sensor and proprietary control logic running advanced algorithms, the integration of the sensor, dedicated motors and special logic enables closing the loop between detecting the plaque residing areas and controlling the plaque removal element to reach them, thereby providing a tool that applies a Smart brushing. 
     Smart brushing can be achieved by one or more of the methods listed but not limited to. One method merely requires the user to insert the dental care device into his mouth, making sure to leave the dental care device at a fixed location until an automatic user indication is asserted indicating to move to the next location and repeat this action as indicated by the dental care device. Another method may require the user to use a proprietary disclosing solution toothpaste or mouth wash before performing the actions described in the first method hereinabove. Yet another method may require the user to first scan the entire mouth enabling the dental care device to create a full mouth image thus enabling references to specific coordinates and location. Any of the methods described results in Smart brushing activating the advanced integrated logic and mechanics to remove more plaque from the teeth. 
     Turning now to the logical circuit, it is composed of a special logic that can be of many embodiments such as FPGA, ASIC, CPU, PU (Processing Unit) or any other programmable logic but not limited to and enables implementation of advanced algorithms. The generic algorithms can be used for multiple applications some of which but not limited to are plaque detection, tooth and mouth 2D and 3D dimensional pictures, health related alerts and more. 
     The processing unit, in any of the preferred embodiments utilizes an FPGA, ASIC, CPU, PU or other form of programmable logic which performs advanced picture processing algorithms on the received stream of images. The processing may involve the following tasks, but can be enhanced with alternative or additional tasks:
         Primary picture processing starting from image stabilization and stitching algorithms to compensate for jitter resulting from the fact that the device is hand held followed by filtering, scaling, histogram construction and color manipulation;   Teeth boundary detection by object edge detection thus eliminating non relevant areas, threshold search and additional smoothing and filtering;   Specific plaque detection, looking for specific color deflection on the teeth boundaries detected earlier.   The result is a set of commands to control the next movement performed by the brush head in reference to the last coordinates the brush was at, controlling the on/off function of each motor separately and calculating the current location. In accordance to the long head with flexible joints embodiment there is no need to calculate new coordinates and the result is simply the existence of plaque=True or False.       

     According to an embodiment of the invention, plaque detection can be performed but not limited to one or all of the following ways:
         Specific nanometer wavelength for plaque identification/coloring;   Proprietary disclosing solution tooth paste/mouth wash;   Proprietary algorithm for feature detection and object recognition.       

     The functions described herein may be performed by executable code and instructions stored in computer readable medium and running on a processor-based system that is implemented in the plaque detection engine  21 . However, state machines, and/or hardwired electronic circuits can also be utilized. Further, with respect to the example processes described herein, not all the process states need to be reached, nor do the states have to be performed in the illustrated order. 
       FIG. 5  schematically illustrates, in a block diagram form, the electrical components of the dental care device  10  of  FIG. 2 , according to an embodiment of the present invention. The dental care device  10  includes the plaque detection engine  21 , the plaque detection unit  13 , the dedicated motor(s) such as  141 ,  151  and  161  and a power source, e.g., as indicated by battery  41 . 
     According to an embodiment of the invention, the dental care device  10  may further include a communication port  42  (e.g., a wireless, a wired or combination of both) for allowing the dental care device  10  to forward data (either processed or raw) to external devices such as an external display unit  43 , dock station, smartphones, notebooks or other computer based devices as generally indicated by numeral  44 , etc. The communication port can be implemented by any suitable communication protocol such as a USB port, WiFi, Bluetooth and the like. 
     The Plaque Detection Engine (PDE)  21  performs all the video processing required for accurate analysis of the movement of the plaque removal head  11 . The PDE  21  also performs the wireless/wired output to the external display unit  43  for displaying user information. As apparent to a person skilled in the art, the PDE  21  communicates with the motors  141 ,  151 ,  161  and with the PDU  13  via any suitable interface as indicated by “I/F” in the figure. 
     The PDE  21  is responsible for the very delicate sliding movement of the head  11  as well as on/off commands to each dedicated motor of each array of bristles in order to prevent abrasive tear of the tooth surface where no plaque resides. 
     All the above will be better understood through the following illustrative and non-limitative examples. 
       FIG. 6  schematically illustrates an exemplary top level PDE in a block diagram from, according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     As will be apparent to the skilled person, an input sync machine  50  can perform the alignment and synchronization on the data received from the PDS  18  incorporated in the plaque detection unit  13 . For example, the data can be received in pixel clock rate and synced to the system clock using a FIFO line length buffer. Depending on the properties of PDS  18 , the pixel data can be, for example, 8 bit width constituting a ˜2K buffer (internal memory) for a 224×240 active pixel resolution. The active pixel data is then processed in pre-processing stages by a sensor processing unit  51  as described in further details hereinafter. 
     Processing Stages 
     The first stage of the pre-processing is a series of filters implemented in logic. The purpose is to reduce noise, eliminate motion blur, enhance luminance and prepare the data for generating a stitched picture where the advanced algorithms can be implemented on. 
     The second stage is hardware (HW) based feature detection machine, feature tracking and picture stabilization and stitching. This HW machines also use internal SRAMs for calculations and processing and perform the data extraction elements of the algorithms. In this stage specific teeth object recognition algorithms are also implemented. The stitched picture is then stored in a memory  52  for further processing. 
     The third part of the processing is done by a CPU  54  such as an ARM/Cortex processor. Using the data extracted by the HW machine the software enabled part of the algorithm is performed including locating the dental care device accurate coordinates, identifying the accurate plaque infected areas and outputting the commands to the plaque removal head of the dental care device. 
     A Motor Controller (MC)  53  translates the commands received from a motor movement calculation unit that resides in the ARM/Cortex processor to actual motor movements which control the plaque removal head. The MC  53  is also responsible for converting the bus interface and voltages to the dedicated motors that rotates/moves the array of bristles. 
     A User Information Processor (UIP)  55  is comprised of two main features generating video and audio user information. The UIP  55  produces user information needed at least for performing the cleaning. The UIP  55  may incorporate a video encoder module for video compression in order to forward video data to an external user screen, such as display unit  43  ( FIG. 5 ). 
     The Audio generated information may include audible indication such as:
         mouth section timer expiration;   brushing timer (e.g., 2 minutes);   misusage information;       

     The Video generated information may include visual indication such as:
         mouth panoramic view (e.g., 8 sections);   specific section missed/under use indication;   pressure sensor indication;   replacement indication of the plaque removal head;   battery life information.       

     As aforementioned hereinabove, the motor is responsible for both the circular head movement and the sliding head movement according to the commands calculated by the PDE  21 . The motor should be low power with a long life cycle to meet consumer products requirements. 
     The aforementioned embodiments provide a Smart toothbrush equipped with all necessary components to achieve perfect brushing. The Smart toothbrush offers a unique architecture combining semiconductor technology with video processing and delicate mechanics to deliver a Smart toothbrush paving the way to perfect brushing. Smart brushing is achieved by identifying the plaque infected areas of the tooth and working to relieve the detected plaque. 
     All the above description and examples have been given for the purpose of illustration and are not intended to limit the invention in any way. Many different mechanisms, methods of analysis, electronic and logical elements can be employed, all without exceeding the scope of the invention.