IP Library › Granted Patent US 10,779,718
Granted Patent B2
US 10,779,718 · App. 15/895,754 · Granted Sep 22, 2020

Cheek retractor and mobile device holder

Inventors: Eric P. Meyer (Pleasanton, CA); Roman A. Roschin (Moscow, RU); Tzishing Jesse Lim (Mountain View, CA); Palak Mittal (Sunnyvale, CA); Stephan Albert Alexandre Dumothier (Houston, TX); Norman C. Su (San Jose, CA); Huameng Ivan Chu (San Mateo, CA)
Assignee: Align Technology, Inc.
A61B1/24A61B1/00009A61C5/90A61C9/0093A61C13/34A61C19/04G06T7/60G06T7/62G06T7/70G06T7/74H04B1/3877A61C9/0053G06T2207/10016G06T2207/30036G06T2207/30204
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,779,718
App. No.
15/895,754
Filed
Feb 13, 2018
Granted
Sep 22, 2020
Kind
B2
Art Unit
3772
USPC
433/140
Abstract

The present disclosure provides methods, computing device readable medium, devices, and systems that utilize a cheek retractor and/or a mobile device holder for case assessment and/or dental treatments. One cheek retractor includes a first and a second lip holder, both including imaging markers of a predetermined size to determine a scale of teeth of a user, where each imaging marker is located a predefined distance from the remaining imaging markers, and where the lip holder is to hold a cheek away from a mouth of a user to expose teeth of the user. A mobile device holder can include elements to receive a mobile device to capture images of the patient's teeth.

Claims (38)

1. A non-transitory computing device readable medium having executable instructions that are executed by a processor to cause a mobile device to perform a method, including:

determining whether a mobile device holder coupled to a cheek retractor has positioned the mobile device in a correct orientation with respect to a user's teeth based on an input received by a camera of the mobile device;

generating an instruction for the user to change the position of the mobile device relative to the teeth by changing an angle at which the mobile device holder holds the mobile device relative to the teeth in response to the input; and

taking at least one of a picture and video of the user's teeth with the mobile device at different positions relative to the teeth as the angle is adjusted;

wherein:

a cheek of the user is held away from a mouth of the user to expose the teeth of the user via the cheek retractor.

2. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein generating the instruction for the user to change the position of the mobile device includes generating an instruction for the user to change a distance from the mobile device to the user's teeth.

3. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein generating the instruction for the user to change the position of the mobile device includes generating the instruction based an indication that the mobile device is in an incorrect position or orientation.

4. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions are executed by the processor to cause the mobile device to generate instructions to take at least one of a number of pictures and video of the user's teeth at a number of different positions.

5. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the executable instructions are executed by the processor to cause the mobile device to repeat the method until a threshold number of pictures or video are taken at the number of different positions.

6. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions are executed by the processor to cause the mobile device to take one or more pictures of the user's teeth.

7. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions are executed by the processor to cause the mobile device to take one or more videos of the user's teeth.

8. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions are executed by the processor to cause the mobile device to determine a scale for the user's teeth using one or more markers on the cheek retractor in the at least one of the picture and video.

9. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the executable instructions are executed by the processor to cause the mobile device to determine the scale based on a distance between at least two of the markers and pixels in the at least one of the picture and video.

10. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the executable instructions are executed by the processor to cause the mobile device to determine the scale based on a size of the one or more markers and pixels in the at least one of the picture and video.

11. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the executable instructions are executed by the processor to cause the mobile device to generate a visual instruction, an audible instruction, or a visual instruction and an audible instruction.

12. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein generating the instruction includes generating instruction for the user to adjust a position of a first portion of the mobile device holder relative to a second portion of the mobile device holder.

13. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 12 , wherein first portion is coupled to the mobile device and is configured to constrain movement of the mobile device relative to the first portion.

14. A method of taking images of a user's teeth, the method comprising:

determining whether a mobile device holder coupled to a cheek retractor is positioned in a correct orientation with respect to the user's teeth based on an input received by a camera of the mobile device;

generating an instruction for the user to change the position of the mobile device relative to the teeth by changing an angle at which the mobile device holder holds the mobile device relative to the teeth in response to the input; and

taking the images of the user's teeth with the mobile device at different positions relative to the teeth as the angle is adjusted, wherein the cheek retractor exposes the user's teeth while taking the images.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising securing the mobile device to a first portion of the mobile device holder, and attaching the check retractor to a second portion of the mobile device holder.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the first portion of the mobile device holder is adjustable with respect to the second portion of the mobile device holder.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising determining a scale for the user's teeth using one or more markers of the cheek retractor in one or more of the images.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the scale for the user's teeth is based a size of the one or more markers of the cheek retractor in the one or more of the images.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the scale for the user's teeth is based a distance between markers of the cheek retractor in the one or more of the images.

20. The method of claim 14 , wherein the generating the instructions includes generating a visual instruction, an audible instruction, or a visual instruction and an audible instruction.

21. The method of claim 14 , further comprising adjusting adjustable stops of the mobile device holder to accommodate a size of the mobile device.

22. A system comprising a non-transitory computing device readable medium having executable instructions that are executed by a processor to cause a mobile device to perform a method, including:

generating instructions for a user to change a position of the mobile device relative to the user's teeth in response to input from a camera of the mobile device, wherein the instructions include calibration instructions to adjust a distance in which a mobile device holder holds the mobile device relative to the teeth, and wherein the instructions further include imaging angle instructions to change an angle at which the mobile device holder holds the mobile device relative to the teeth to take images of the teeth; and

taking the images of the user's teeth with the mobile device at different positions relative to the teeth as the angle is adjusted.

23. The system of claim 22 , wherein once calibrated, the imaging angle instructions allows controlled movement of the mobile device holder holding the mobile device relative to the teeth.

24. The system of claim 22 , further comprising a cheek retractor to expose the user's teeth while taking the images.

25. The system of claim 24 , wherein the cheek retractor includes one or more markers for determining a scale for the user's teeth in the images.

26. The system of claim 24 , further comprising the mobile device holder attached to the cheek retractor.

27. The system of claim 22 , further comprising the mobile device holder, wherein the mobile device holder is configured to accommodate mobile devices having different sizes.

28. The system of claim 22 , wherein the executable instructions further comprise instructions to cause the mobile device to generate an indicator that the mobile device holder is in a correct position.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 12, 2018
From: MEYER, ERIC P.; ROSCHIN, ROMAN A.; LIM, TZISHING JESSE; MITTAL, PALAK; DUMOTHIER, STEPHAN ALBERT ALEXANDRE; SU, NORMAN C.; CHU, HUAMENG IVAN
To: ALIGN TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Reel/Frame 045518/0788 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 62458477 · Feb 13, 2017
Related Publication 20180228359A1 · Aug 16, 2018
Cited By (36)
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