Patent ID: 7495208

Claim:
A wound scanning apparatus comprising: a housing; a light source disposed in said housing and operative for outputting a beam or sheet of light; means disposed in said housing for scanning the beam or sheet of light from said housing on a wound and a reference surface adjacent said wound; a first light sensor disposed in said housing for detecting reflection of the scanned light that occurs in response to interaction between the scanned light with the wound, the adjacent reference surface or both, said first light sensor being either a one- or two-dimensional light sensor; means disposed in said housing and in the path of the reflected light for focusing the reflected light on the first light sensor; a controller disposed in said housing and operative for processing signals output by the first light sensor into data representative of at least the wound; a display disposed in said housing and operating under the control of the controller for displaying said data or a representation thereof; and a mirror disposed in said housing for reflecting at least a portion of the scanned beam or sheet of light to the first light sensor via the focusing means, wherein the controller is further operative for at least one of the following; determining a direction of the scanned beam or sheet of light based on where the mirror reflected light impinge(s) on the light sensor; or determining a distance between the first light sensor and a surface of the wound based on where the mirror reflected light impinge(s) and the reflected scanned light impinge(s) on the first light sensor.