Patent ID: 6925198

Claim:
A method, suitable for use in medical, dental and veterinary applications, for developing a virtual three-dimensional model of a therapeutic field of view, said method comprising: (a) securing, to an edentulous portion of a dental arch of a patient, at least one three-dimensional recognition object having a defined topography of precisely known dimensions that permits the determination of position and orientation of at least two images with respect to each other; (b) employing freely movable scanning means to capture visual images of said field of view, wherein the same recognition object appears in at least two captured images; (c) employing imaging software to develop a digitized construction, from said at least two of said images, of a virtual three-dimensional model of a portion of said field of view; and (d) employing said construction of a model of a portion of said field of view as base data to represent the anatomical condition of said patient.