Patent ID: 6964639

Claim:
A method of mapping irregularities in a surface of a hard tissue within a target, the method comprising: (a) transmitting from an ultrasonic transducer at a defined location a focused beam of ultrasonic energy towards the surface of the hard tissue at a first oblique angle of incidence; (b) registering said defined location if and only if an echo-reflection from said surface of the hard tissue is received by said transducer; (c) defining said location of said transducer in six degrees of freedom; (d) calculating a set of position co-ordinates for a portion of the surface of the hard tissue causing said echo-reflection; (e) moving said ultrasonic transducer to a different defined location; (f) repeating a through e; (g) repeating steps (a) through (f) with an additional angle at least 20 degrees apart from the previous oblique angle; (h) determining for each of said set of position co-ordinates for a portion of the surface of the hard tissue causing said echo-reflection at least a portion of a reflection diagram; (i) further determining for each of said at least a portion of a reflection diagram a degree of normalcy according to a predetermined rule to generate a map of the irregularities in the surface of the tissue; (j) classifying any of said set of position co-ordinates for a portion of the surface of the hard tissue wherein said at least a portion of a reflection diagram is characterized by a low degree of normalcy according to said predetermined rule as belonging to a surface irregularity; and (k) compiling at least a portion of said sets of position co-ordinates to generate a map of the irregularities in the surface of the hard tissue.