Patent ID: 8570530

Claim:
An intra-oral imaging apparatus comprising: an illumination field generator comprising: a first light source for providing monochromatic light, a second light source for providing polychromatic light, and a spatial light modulator actuable to form an first illumination beam having a contour fringe projection pattern when receiving incident light from the first light source and to form a second illumination beam having a substantially uniform illumination field when receiving incident light from the second light source; a polarizer in a path of the illumination beams emitted from the illumination field generator and having a first polarization transmission axis; a projection lens disposed to direct the illumination beams that are polarized by the polarizer as incident illumination toward a tooth surface; an imaging lens disposed to direct at least a portion of light reflected and scattered from the incident illumination at the tooth surface along a detection path; a polarization-selective element disposed along the detection path and having a second polarization transmission axis; at least one detector disposed along the detection path for obtaining image data from the light provided through the polarization-selective element; and a control logic processor responsive to programmed instructions for alternately energizing the first and second light sources in a sequence and obtaining both contour fringe projection data and color image data from the at least one detector and registering the contour fringe projection data and color image data for display as a color three-dimensional image.