Patent ID: 7234937

Claim:
A system for use in diagnosis and planning treatment of a human patient, comprising: a general purpose computer system having a processor and a user interface; a memory accessible to said general purpose computer system storing a) a first set of digital data representing patient craniofacial image information obtained from a first imaging device, and b) a second set of digital data representing patient craniofacial image information obtained from a second image device different from said first image device, said first and second sets of data representing at least in part common craniofacial anatomical structures of said patient, at least one of said first and second sets of digital data including data representing the external visual appearance or surface configuration of the face of the patient, wherein said first and second digital data sets are each obtained at different points in time and are not captured in a correlated fashion; and a set of computer instructions stored on a machine readable storage medium accessible to said general purpose computer system, wherein said set of instructions comprises instructions for causing said general computer system to: 1) automatically, and/or with the aid of operator interaction, superimpose said first set of digital data and said second set of digital data so as to provide a composite, combined digital representation of said craniofacial anatomical structures created from said first and second digital data sets each obtained at different points in time and not captured in a correlated fashion in a common coordinate system; wherein said set of instructions comprise instructions for creating a virtual 3D face at least from a portion of said craniofacial anatomical structures using an active model matching strategy; 2) display said composite, combined digital representation of said craniofacial anatomical structures, including said virtual 3D face, to a user of said system.