Patent Document ID: 9408580
Application ID: 14133617
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for generating a digital dental panoramic image, comprising: using several individual overlapping frames ( 300 ) taken along a dental arch by a dental panoramic x-ray imaging apparatus, said apparatus including: an x-ray source for generating an x-ray beam and having a focus, and an image detector having pixel columns and said frames ( 300 ) being taken by moving the x-ray source and the image detector around a patient's head, and calculating the panoramic image ( 200 ) by summing information of the frames ( 300 ), wherein the panoramic image ( 200 ) is generated by summing information of the frames ( 300 ) with respect to information of location and orientation of the x-ray beam and the x-ray detector at times when taking the frames, a virtual panorama curve ( 400 ) with respect to said information of location and orientation of the x-ray beam and the x-ray detector is generated which represents a desired tomographic layer to be shown by the panoramic image( 200 ), for a column C of the panoramic image ( 200 ) being generated, a desired point P on said curve ( 400 ) is determined, and a column C of the panoramic image ( 200 ) is generated by summing those columns of the individual frames ( 300 ) to which the point P as viewed from the focus of the X-ray source is projected, this projection P˜P′ defining a projection direction of the point P concerning the particular individual frame ( 300 ).