Dental camera system
A dental camera system for creating an image of an object has a dental camera, which comprises a housing and optics arranged therein together with an image sensor. The dental camera system further comprises an evaluation unit which cooperates with the image sensor to capture the object. To achieve a dental camera system whereof the dental camera performs using optics without movable or controllable optical elements, it is provided for the optics to be plenoptic optics which are designed to determine a 4D light field when capturing the object and for the evaluation unit to be designed to calculate at least one representation of the captured object from the 4D light field.
1. A dental camera system comprising:
a) a dental camera comprising an image sensor and plenoptic optics arranged in a light path between an object and the image sensor,
b) an evaluation unit that
cooperates with the image sensor and
is configured
to calculate a 4D light field from data produced by the image sensor in a single image capture,
to calculate different 2D image representations of the object from the 4D light field, which different 2D image representations correspond to 2D images captured at different object distances and
to automatically select a 2D image representation from the different 2D image representations with the aid of at least one predetermined evaluation criterion, wherein the at least one evaluation criterion comprises a result of a contrast measurement in at least one sub-region of the different 2D image representations.
2. The dental camera system according to claim 1 , wherein the plenoptic optics comprise an array of optical elements which splits the light path into a plurality of mutually adjacent imaging channels having partially overlapping fields of view.
3. The dental camera system according to claim 2 , wherein the array of optical elements is a lens array which comprises a plurality of lenses, with each lens being associated with one of the imaging channels.
4. The dental camera system according to claim 3 , wherein the lenses of the lens array are the only lenses of the dental camera.
5. The dental camera system according to claim 2 , wherein the imaging channels comprise a first group of imaging channels and a second group of imaging channels, and wherein a filter with a first filter effect is arranged in the light path of the respective imaging channels of the first group and no filter, or a filter with a second filter effect which differs from the first filter effect, is arranged in the light path of the respective imaging channels of the second group.
6. The dental camera system according to claim 5 , wherein the array of optical elements is a lens array which comprises a plurality of lenses, with each lens being associated with one of the imaging channels and wherein at least one filter with the first filter effect is formed by a lens of the lens array.
7. The dental camera system according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the plenoptic optics are designed as focussed plenoptic optics.
8. The dental camera system according to claim 1 , wherein the evaluation unit is configured to calculate different 2D image representations of the object from the 4D light field, which different 2D image representations correspond to 2D images captured from a different observer viewpoint.
9. The dental camera system according to claim 8 , wherein the evaluation unit comprises a 3D display device, in particular an autostereoscopic screen, and is configured to display the captured object three-dimensionally using at least two of the different 2D image representations.
10. The dental camera system according claim 1 , wherein the evaluation unit is configured to calculate a three-dimensional structure of the object from the 4D light field.