Optical Device for Dental Elements 3D Shape Measurement

In this work considerations about designing an optical device for endoral contouring of teeth elements will be presented. The proposed approach has the potentiality to get high accuracy information about the shape of the analyzed dental elements. The process becomes, at the same time, less connected with the ability of the operator and it makes the patient more comfortable. The proposed system is mainly based on the fringe projection approach. In this specific case, the Young's interference from two adjacent fibers is adopted to generate the required fringe pattern. The phase of the pattern deformed by the surface under analysis contains information about the shape of the surface itself. However, to manage complex surfaces, hierarchical unwrapping is required. In this paper an innovative approach based on fringe contrast analysis is presented. Results obtained on calibrated specimens and 3D models of dental elements confirm the validity of the proposed approach