Oral Scanner System

Abstract

This application relates to an oral scanner system, where the oral scanner is configured and / or arranged to perform a scanning procedure of at least a part of a subject's oral cavity, the position detector is configured and / or arranged to output position sensor data regarding the discrete position or location where the oral scanner is currently performing the scanning procedure, the processor receives at least the position sensor data, processes the position sensor data to determine the scanning discrete position or location within at least the part of the oral cavity where the oral scanner is currently performing the scanning procedure, and is configured and / or arranged to calculate, based at least on the determined scanning discrete position or location where the oral scanner is currently performing the scanning procedure, a scanning procedure progress value within a range between a start progress value and an end progress value for each of at least two discrete positions or locations, and the feedback unit is configured and / or arranged to provide feedback regarding the scanning procedure progress for each of at least two discrete positions or locations during the scanning procedure.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an oral scanner system comprising an oral scanner, a position sensor, and a processor configured and arranged to determine discrete positions or locations within at least a portion of the oral cavity where the oral scanner is currently executing a scan procedure.

Background Art

[0002] Various professional and consumer oral scanner systems are known to those skilled in the art.

[0003] Particularly with respect to consumer oral scanner systems, there is a general interest in providing an oral scanner system that enables improved usability or guidance through an oral scan procedure, and / or more versatile and ideally intuitively understandable communication of oral health data related to at least one oral health condition in the context of continuous oral care treatment. According to some aspects, there is a desire to provide at least alternative oral scanner systems.

Summary of the Invention

Means for Solving the Problems

[0004] According to at least one aspect, an oral scanner system is provided, the oral scanner system comprising an oral scanner configured and / or arranged to perform a scanning procedure of at least a portion of a subject's oral cavity, a position detector configured and / or arranged to output position sensor data regarding a discrete position or location at which the oral scanner is currently performing the scanning procedure, a processor configured and / or arranged to receive at least the position sensor data, process the position sensor data to determine a scanning discrete position or location within at least the portion of the oral cavity at which the oral scanner is currently performing the scanning procedure, and calculate a scanning procedure progress value within a range between a start progress value and an end progress value of at least two discrete positions or locations, at least based on the determination of the scanning discrete position or location at which the oral scanner is currently performing the scanning procedure within the oral cavity, and a feedback unit configured and / or arranged to provide feedback regarding the progress of the scanning procedure for each of at least two discrete positions or locations during the scanning procedure, preferably as a single numerical value such as a percentage for each of at least two discrete positions or locations, preferably as live or real-time feedback, preferably by indicating the calculated scanning procedure progress value as the single numerical value for each of at least two discrete positions or locations.

[0005] The above aspect will be described in more detail in the following description that aids a user in using the oral scanner system by continuous and / or induced human and device interactions. The feedback regarding the progress of the scanning procedure represents the operating state of the oral scanner system. In addition to the oral scanner system described herein, a method of using the oral scanner system to scan at least a portion of the oral cavity is also contemplated. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] The present disclosure will be made more apparent by the detailed description of exemplary embodiments and reference to the drawings.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

[0007] The following is a general disclosure of an exemplary oral scanner and an exemplary processor, as well as additional optional components such as a separate device that implements at least a portion of a feedback unit including, for example, a display and / or an oral care device. The phrase "configured and / or arranged" as used in this disclosure refers to the structural and / or computer-implemented features of each component, and implies that each feature or component is not only suitable for something, but is structurally and / or software-wise arranged to actually perform as intended during operation. Here, it is emphasized that the oral scanner according to this disclosure does not provide the oral care activity itself, in particular does not include an oral cleaning element, i.e., an oral scanner without an oral cleaning element or other oral treatment or care element, and does not provide oral cleaning or oral treatment or oral care. In other words, this disclosure relates to an oral scanner having at least one oral health sensor without additional oral cleaning / treatment / care functions. As will be described later, such a single oral scanner device may cooperate directly or indirectly with an oral care device configured and / or arranged to provide an oral care activity. In such a system, the oral scanner and the oral care device are dedicated devices optimized for individual tasks, and one or the other device can benefit from the information previously recorded by the other device. For example, the oral scanner may scan areas and / or segments of low oral activity by the oral care device, and vice versa. The oral care device may provide feedback to the user to increase the oral care activity in the areas and / or segments where the oral scanner has determined the presence of oral health problems.

[0008] General Considerations The present disclosure relates to an oral scanner system comprising at least an oral scanner and a processor, where the processor may be physically located in or on the oral scanner or may be implemented as a processor separate from, i.e., remote from, the oral scanner. As will be explained in more detail below, the processor may be implemented in a distributed manner. The oral scanner system may specifically comprise at least one separate or remote device that implements at least part of a feedback unit, such as a display for example. This does not exclude, for example, the oral scanner itself from alternatively or additionally including a display and / or at least one visual feedback element. The remote display and the remote processor may be arranged together in a separate device, i.e., they may have an integrated outer housing. The separate device may be a proprietary or custom-made device, such as a charger with a display, or a computer, laptop, notebook, tablet, telephone such as a mobile phone or smartphone, or a generally known device such as a smartwatch that can be used to implement a separate display and / or a separate processor. The oral scanner system may comprise at least one oral care device, in particular an electric toothbrush, that is directly or indirectly coupled to the oral scanner and / or the processor, preferably for data exchange by means of wireless communication, for example, for at least a limited period of time, as an alternative to or in addition to the separate device. The oral scanner and the oral care device may share the same handle and may be so realized only by attaching their respective oral scanner head or oral care head to the handle. However, it may be preferable to have an independent oral care device that has its own handle and is arranged to be used independently of the oral scanner system, i.e., it may be hardware-disconnected from the oral scanner system. It may be foreseen that the oral care device may need to be initially registered with the oral care system in order to become part of the oral care system.An oral scanner system may include at least one charger for charging a rechargeable energy storage unit of an oral scanner and / or an oral care device and / or a separate device. The charger(s) may be a wireless charger such as an inductive charger.

[0009] The oral scanner may comprise at least one oral health sensor for obtaining, detecting, measuring or determining and outputting at least one oral health sensor data regarding at least one oral health condition. Hereinafter, one of the terms "obtaining", "detecting", "measuring" or "determining" (or other forms of these verbs or nouns derived from these verbs) is used in relation to the oral health sensor, which shall also include other terms. The oral scanner system may be configured and / or arranged to provide, i.e., output, position sensor data that enables detecting, measuring, or determining at least one discrete position or location (or segment) where the oral scanner is currently performing a scan procedure or was performing a scan procedure at a given time. The scan procedure includes determining the oral health sensor data. In this context, the term "discrete" related to the position of a location within the oral cavity shall indicate that the oral cavity is divided into one or more discrete regions or segments, such as the upper and lower jaws. Typically, the discrete regions or segments do not overlap and essentially completely or without gaps cover the parts of the oral cavity that are intended to be scanned.

[0010] Here, the object of the present proposal is to provide the user with easy-to-understand information. For example, the acquired oral health information or scan procedure progress information is provided in a way that is processed for each discrete position or location (or for each segment). Specifically, it is mentioned that it is reduced to a single value or a single mark, that is, a single percentage value representing the current or finally achieved scan procedure progress or oral health state, or a color indicating the achieved scan procedure progress or oral health state. This oral scanner system is particularly intended for home use by laypersons. Therefore, the improvements and benefits associated with the present proposal are particularly seen in such home use by non-expert users.

[0011] The term "sensor" is to be understood to cover a sensor type that measures or determines parameters related to oral health based on ambient light incident on the sensor or an external measurement medium such as saliva available in the oral cavity analyzed by the sensor, that is, a sensor equipped with a sensor receiver. The term "sensor" further covers a sensor type that includes a measurement medium such as light, that is, a sensor emitter arranged to emit light, and a sensor receiver such as a light receiver, such that the measurement or determination depends at least in part on a non-external measurement medium that means the measurement medium provided by each sensor emitter. The oral scanner is configured and / or arranged to perform a scan procedure for acquiring oral health sensor data related to the oral scanner determining oral health sensor data, preferably oral health data related to at least one oral health state, from at least a part of the oral cavity via an oral health sensor. Preferably, the oral health sensor data and / or the oral health data determined therefrom are acquired in a position-resolved or location-resolved manner. That is, each oral health sensor data and / or oral health data is assigned to position data or location data derived from position sensor data acquired by a position sensor at the same time or period with respect to which the oral health sensor data is acquired.

[0012] In the context of the present disclosure, the term "oral health sensor data" refers to the essentially unprocessed data output by an oral health sensor during a scan procedure (e.g., image data if the oral health sensor is a camera, or a pH value if the oral health sensor is a pH sensor), and the term "oral health data" refers to the processed oral health sensor data (e.g., a normalized or absolute region per tooth or discrete position or location indicating dental plaque, or an average pH value per discrete position or location). In some cases, the oral health sensor data is itself a direct measure of oral health status, for example, it should be understood that oral health sensor data from a halitosis sensor may not require further processing to enable a user to determine whether or not they have halitosis as the halitosis sensor may provide a certain level of sulfur emission. The processing of oral health sensor data can then be regarded as a classification into at least one of at least two state classes of the oral health sensor data, for example, a classification into "no associated level of halitosis" as one state class and "associated level of halitosis" as another state class. The classification can then be performed by a processor by comparison with at least one threshold. More complex classification concepts are described below. Of course, the classification described above can also use the processed oral health sensor data, i.e., the oral health data. For example, the output from a halitosis sensor may be averaged over several measurement instances and then used for classification.

[0013] The processor is coupled to an oral health sensor and / or a position sensor to receive at least one sensor data, preferably a plurality and / or a series of sensor data. It may receive single sensor data in chronological order and accumulate it into multiple time interval sensor data, or receive multiple sensor data at each measurement time and accumulate multiple sensor data into multiple time interval sensor data. The sensor data may be transmitted to the processor as a sensor signal. For example, the sensor signal may often be a voltage signal that is the output of a sensor measuring physical, chemical, or material properties. The sensor signal may be an analog signal or a digital signal. Here, the term "datum" or "data" refers to the information content of the physical quantity to which the sensor data (datum) or sensor data (data) is transmitted and the "signal". When the term "sensor data" is used in the present disclosure, it shall refer to the "oral health sensor data" provided by the oral health sensor and the "position sensor data" provided by the position sensor. If it is intended to mean only one of the two types of data, the more limited terms for each are used. The processor is preferably arranged to process the sensor data from at least one oral health sensor and at least one position sensor such that at least one position-resolved or location-resolved oral health data regarding at least one oral health state is determined. However, the oral health sensor outputs oral health sensor data that can be processed by the processor to determine oral health data, the position sensor outputs position sensor data that is processed by the processor to determine position data, and it is further clarified that the processor can associate or assign the oral health data and the position data with each other such that position-resolved or location-resolved oral health data can be obtained. As described above, the oral health sensor data can be assigned to the position data without the need for further processing of the oral health sensor data.

[0014] The oral scanner may comprise a scanner head and a scanner handle that can be removably connected, and thus it is not excluded that the scanner head and the scanner handle can be non-removably connected and form one integrated device. The oral scanner may have a housing surrounding a hollow portion in which components of the oral scanner, such as an energy source, a controller, a scanner communicator, etc., can be disposed. The housing may be such that a user can conveniently grip the oral scanner by hand. The scanner head may be sized and shaped to be conveniently inserted into the oral cavity. The housing can accommodate at least one user-operable control element, such as an on / off button or an on / off switch or a selector button or a selector switch, or any other such element typically expected or seen on an oral scanner. The housing can further accommodate at least one feedback element of a feedback unit configured and / or arranged to provide the user with perceptible feedback. The feedback unit may comprise one or several feedback elements, for example, a display provided by a separate device. The at least one feedback element can include at least one from a list including, but not limited to, optical feedback elements such as a light emitter or a plurality of light emitters or a display, acoustic feedback elements such as a loudspeaker or a piezoelectric speaker or a buzzer, and tactile or haptic feedback generators such as a vibrator or any other type, for example, a refreshable braille display.

[0015] In embodiments where the oral scanner system includes a display as an element of the feedback unit, for example, in an oral scanner and / or by a separate device or in a separate device, the display can be arranged to visualize feedback regarding oral health (sensor) data related to at least one oral health state for at least two discrete positions or locations (or segments). For example, the display may be configured and / or arranged to visualize discretely position-resolved or discretely location-resolved (or segment-resolved) oral health (sensor) data. The term sensor being within "oral health (sensor) data" shall include oral health sensor data and oral health data. The display may be configured and / or arranged to show a depiction or visualization of at least a portion of the oral cavity, for example, an abstract or generalized depiction of at least a portion of the oral cavity such as the dentition. The display can be arranged to additionally depict at least one oral health state and / or at least one state class in relation to oral health (sensor) data classifiable for at least one oral health state and / or at least one feedback regarding oral health (sensor) data. The feedback can be realized by changing the depiction or visualization of at least a portion of the oral cavity, or by overlaying a visual representation of discretely position-resolved or location-resolved (or segment-by-segment) oral health data on the depiction of at least a portion of the oral cavity, or by depicting oral health data on the display as, for example, text data and associating it with discrete positions or locations (i.e., segments) within the depiction of at least a portion of the oral cavity. The feedback and the depiction or visualization referred to herein are typically performed discretely position-resolved, i.e., segment-by-segment.The present disclosure focuses on either an abstract or a more realistic depiction of a complete dentition, such as at least parts of the oral cavity including the upper and lower jaws, along with overlaid oral health state data related to one or more oral health states, without excluding that the oral health state (sensor) data may be presented in different ways, for example as a table of oral health state (sensor) data related to one or several oral health states for discrete positions or locations within at least parts of the oral cavity. For example, an overlay of a live image or an image calculated from an acquired image on a model such as a dentition is not considered discrete segmental feedback as such an overlay leaves the analysis of the segment information to the discretion of the expert user. In the context of the present disclosure, feedback is provided in a processed way that can provide a single display or a single value per segment to a non-expert user without requiring any analysis by the lay user.

[0016] Feedback regarding oral health (sensor) data may be provided "live" or in real time, for example, while the user is performing a scan procedure using an oral scanner, meaning that the feedback can adapt to the live progress of the scan procedure, and "live" is taken to mean that there is a short time delay, for example, less than 10 seconds, less than 5 seconds, less than 4 seconds, less than 3 seconds, less than 2 seconds, or less than 1 second, between the acquisition step and the feedback step. Feedback regarding oral health (sensor) data may alternatively or additionally be provided at the end of the scan procedure via summary feedback in which the accumulated oral health (sensor) data is presented as a final result. Again, all feedback described herein is to be understood as including discretely position-resolved or location-resolved (or segment-by-segment) feedback. This can include a classification, preferably a discrete position-resolved or location-resolved (or segment-by-segment) classification of the oral health (sensor) data with respect to at least two state classes related to at least one oral health condition. Alternatively or additionally, the oral health (sensor) data and / or state classes determined by the classification of the current scan procedure may be compared with historical oral health (sensor) data and / or state classes from a previous scan procedure or a series of previous scan procedures, and the trend or progression of the oral health (sensor) data and / or state classes over time may be visualized as feedback. Again, this can be done in a discrete position-resolved or location-resolved (or segment-by-segment) manner. Such historical data may be stored in a memory coupled or connected to a processor. The stored historical data may include oral care activity data regarding at least one oral care activity procedure performed using an oral care device, as will be described in more detail below.

[0017] The processor may be arranged to classify oral health (sensor) data into at least two different state classes related to at least one oral health state, for example, two state classes related to the severity of the oral health state. The processor may preferably be arranged to classify the oral health (sensor) data in a discretely position-resolved or location-resolved manner (or per segment), that is, the classification is performed for a first position or a first location or a first segment such as the upper right molar, or for at least a second position or a second location or a second segment such as the lower left molar or the incisor. The possibility of subdividing the oral cavity into discrete positions or locations or segments will be described in more detail below. By way of example, the oral cavity intended to be scanned may be the dentition. Possible segments / discrete positions or locations may be (a1) the upper jaw and the lower jaw, or (a2) the mandible and the maxilla, or (b) the upper right molar, the upper front teeth, the upper left molar, the lower left molar, the lower front teeth, and the lower right molar, or (c) the buccal surface of the upper right molar, the occlusal surface of the upper right molar, and the lingual surface of the upper right molar, or (d) the buccal, lingual, and chewing surfaces of the 26th tooth of the human dentition, or one of the above, and the tongue surface. All surfaces of all teeth in the human dentition can result in 72 segments (molars have two surfaces, canines and incisors have two surfaces), or 84 segments if all wisdom teeth are similarly included. In some examples, a complete scan of the user's dentition is intended as a standard scan procedure, but in some examples, the scan procedure only affects the selection of these segments that completely cover the human dentition. The latter may be the case especially when, after a previous scan session and / or after a previous oral care activity, only the selection of segments that cover the complete dentition is selected for repeated scans or focused scans.

[0018] The terms "discrete position" and "discrete location" or "segment" are used interchangeably herein. For readability, the present disclosure may not always refer to all three phrases in all instances.

[0019] The processor may be configured and / or arranged to process sensor data in a "live" manner, e.g., during a scan procedure, such that "live" or generally real-time information regarding the progress or status of the scan procedure and / or the progress or status of oral health data collection can be visualized as feedback on the display as previously described. The live display may similarly include an abstract or more realistic depiction of at least a portion of the oral cavity and superimposed feedback regarding at least the status of the scan procedure. For example, the various discrete positions or locations or segments of the oral cavity being scanned may be individually highlighted in a graded or staged manner such that the user can readily identify where the oral scanner still needs to be moved or positioned in order to complete the scan procedure. By way of example, at least the depicted portion of the oral cavity may be shown in a starting color, e.g., dark blue, and the individual portions associated with different discrete positions or locations of the depicted portion of the oral cavity may be progressively depicted in brighter colors until they are essentially white in order to show the user the scan procedure that has been partially or finally completed with respect to the indicated discrete position or location of the oral cavity. Feedback regarding the progress of the scan procedure may be derived solely from position sensor data, e.g., from the cumulative time that the oral scanner has performed the scan procedure at individual discrete positions or locations. This does not exclude the processor from being configured and / or arranged to determine the progress of the scan procedure in a more refined manner, e.g., by checking whether images taken by a camera, which is preferably part of the oral health sensor, from each discrete position or location of the oral cavity include a sufficiently complete coverage of the discrete position or location of the oral cavity and / or whether such images have a particular image quality, e.g., are not blurry, out of focus, etc. Feedback regarding the progress of the scan procedure may further include an overlay of position-resolved or location-resolved oral health (sensor) data on an abstract or more realistic depiction of at least a portion of the oral cavity.The visualization feedback overlay for display on a display is to be understood to mean the generation of a single image that is displayed on the display by a display controller. The overlay, here, means that a base image, for example a depiction of a dental arch, is modified to reflect additional feedback to be provided.

[0020] The various components of an oral scanner system, such as an oral scanner, a processor, a separate display, a charger, and / or an oral care device, may be arranged to communicate for data exchange or, more generally, at least unidirectionally, preferably bidirectionally, between at least two of these components. Such data exchange or communication may be realized, for example, by a wired connection when the processor is housed inside the oral scanner, but when data exchange is to be performed between separate components, it is preferably realized by wireless communication. Then, one of the components of the oral scanner system, such as the oral scanner, is provided with a scanner communicator such as a transmitter or transceiver, and another component, such as a processor realized within or by a separate device, is provided with a processor communicator such as a receiver or transceiver that can use an exclusive or standardized wireless communication protocol such as the Bluetooth protocol, the Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 protocol, the Zigbee protocol. Each of the components of the oral scanner system may be arranged to communicate with one or several other components of the oral scanner system and / or to wirelessly communicate with another device such as an Internet router or a mobile phone or a tablet or a computer to establish a connection to the Internet, for example, to transmit data to a cloud server that may be part of the oral scanner system and / or to be arranged to receive data from any Internet service such as a cloud server or a weather channel or a news channel. This means that the oral scanner system may be arranged to communicate with the Internet directly or indirectly via a detour through a device that is not part of the oral scanner system.

[0021] Furthermore, oral health (sensor) data and / or state classes (positionally or locally resolved) may also be communicated from an oral scanner and / or a processor to an oral care device such as an electric toothbrush, a gum massager, an oral irrigator, a floss device, a calculus remover, a tooth polishing device, a tooth whitening device, etc. Further, the processor may communicate control data to the oral care device, whereby the oral care device may be enabled to select, based on the control data, preferably in a discretely positionally or locally resolved manner, one of at least two operating settings. The latter requires that the discrete position or location at which the oral care device is currently performing an oral care activity procedure also be determined or tracked or monitored. An oral care device position sensor may be used for this task, and since the principle is the same, the description of the discrete position or location determination of the oral scanner is referred to.

[0022] Oral Scanner Hardware: Attachment The various hardware components of the oral scanner have already been described. Additionally, the oral scanner may comprise an attachment that is preferably arranged to be replaceable so that different attachments can be used for different users or different applications. One focus of the present disclosure is an oral scanner comprising an oral health sensor having a camera as a sensor receiver and at least a first light source as a sensor emitter (see also the following description). The light inlet for the camera and the light outlet of at least the first light source may be provided on the head of the oral scanner. The attachment may be realized as a removable distance attachment. The distance attachment may be arranged to enable a scanning procedure at an essentially constant distance between one or more objects to be scanned, such as teeth, and the light inlet of the camera. The distance piece of the distance attachment may remain in contact with the object to be scanned, specifically the outer surface of the object, in order to maintain a constant distance. The camera can have a focal length that generates a sharp image of an object having a distance to the light inlet of the camera defined by the distance piece. The distance piece may be realized as a closed wall element surrounding the light outlet of the first light source and the light inlet of the camera, whereby the closed wall element effectively blocks ambient light from illuminating the object currently being scanned and thus ultimately reaching the camera. Thus, the distance attachment can solve two problems, namely maintaining a constant distance during the scanning procedure and effectively blocking ambient light from reaching the surface of the object being scanned. The latter is particularly beneficial for embodiments in which the light emitted by the first light source mainly contributes to oral health sensor data, i.e., the image data output by the camera.

[0023] An attachment, such as a distance attachment, may be removable to enable replacement of the attachment when worn, or to enable changing of the attachment when different attachments are used by different users of the oral scanner. The attachment may further be removable to improve accessibility to parts of the oral scanner that benefit from periodic cleaning, such as a window covering the light exit of the first light source and / or the light entrance of the camera. Further, the removable attachment itself may benefit from periodic cleaning, and the cleaning is made easier when the attachment is removable. For example, the attachment may be immersed in a cleaning liquid to clean it and potentially sterilize it.

[0024] Oral health sensor The oral scanner proposed herein comprises at least one oral health sensor and may comprise two or more different oral health sensors. An oral health sensor is understood to be a sensor arranged to acquire and output oral health sensor data regarding at least one characteristic of the oral cavity, and the oral health sensor data may be related to determining the status of the oral health condition or be a direct measure of the oral health condition. The oral health condition may be related to the presence of at least one of the following. Plaque, tartar, demineralization, white spot lesions, gum inflammation, tooth discoloration, stains, gingivitis, enamel erosion and / or wear, cracks, fluorosis, carious lesions, molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH), bad breath, the presence of pathogens such as pathogens causing candidiasis or fungi, tooth misalignment, periodontal ligament disease or periapical periodontitis, peri-implantitis, cysts, abscesses, aphthae, and any other indicators understood by those skilled in the art to be related to the oral health condition.

[0025] The oral scanner may be arranged to acquire oral health sensor data in a position-resolved or location-resolved manner, if this is possible. For example, bad breath may be an oral health condition that affects the entire oral cavity, and thus may not need to be perceptibly acquired in a position-resolved or location-resolved manner. However, the latter does not exclude the possibility that bad breath may be acquired in a position-resolved or location-resolved manner, and that feedback regarding this oral health sensor data may also be provided in a position-resolved or location-resolved manner. For example, the feedback for all discrete positions or locations has the same bad breath level or belongs to the same state class.

[0026] Some of the above-mentioned oral health conditions can be detected by visual analysis, which typically requires an oral health optical sensor such as a camera and software implemented on a processor arranged to determine the oral health condition based on the oral health sensor data provided by the optical oral health sensor, for example, based on the classification of image data or an image sequence regarding at least two state classes, and potentially also to evaluate the level of severity of the oral health condition. Without being limited by theory, the classification of the input image may be performed by a neural network such as a convolutional neural network (CNN), preferably one trained using training images and associated state class results. The classifier used by the processor may be directly supplied with oral health sensor data, such as image data, or the oral health sensor data may first be processed by the processor to determine one or several features, which are also referred to herein as oral health data in relation to at least one oral health condition.

[0027] The oral health sensor may only include a sensor receiver that uses an external medium such as ambient light, saliva, gaseous components, etc. present in the oral cavity to obtain oral health sensor data. According to some aspects, the oral health sensor can include at least one sensor emitter that provides a primary medium and at least one sensor receiver arranged to detect a secondary medium generated by at least the primary medium and / or the interaction between the primary medium and the oral cavity, for example, by the interaction with oral tissues. This does not rule out the sensor receiver being sensitive to the external medium at the same time, as described above. In a more specific example described in more detail below, the at least one sensor emitter is a narrowband light source that emits light in a specific wavelength range as the primary medium, and a second medium, i.e., fluorescence of a higher wavelength, can be generated by the interaction between the emitted light and a specific material present in the oral cavity. The oral health sensor may then further include at least one sensor filter that filters out at least a portion of the primary medium and / or at least a portion of the secondary medium before each medium reaches the sensor receiver. In that case, it is apparent that the sensor receiver can be similarly sensitive to ambient light that can pass through the at least one sensor filter. The influence of ambient light on data collection can be reduced by specific means such as the distance attachment described above. In some embodiments, the oral health sensor is an optical sensor such as a photodiode, an M×N array of optoelectronic elements, or a camera.

[0028] According to some aspects, an oral scanner comprises an oral health sensor having at least a first light source and at least one camera, and the oral scanner is configured and / or arranged to perform a scanning procedure, typically an optical scanning procedure, where the optical scanning procedure refers to a procedure in which a series of images are captured by the camera. The first light source may comprise a light exit, and the camera may comprise a light entrance, and the light exit and the light entrance may be provided on the head of the oral scanner. This can enable, for example, arranging a photoelectric sensor element array, such as an M×N photoelectric sensor element array of the camera, at a distance to the light entrance such as a handle, and guiding light from the light entrance to the photoelectric sensor element array by optical elements such as one or more lenses, one or more mirrors, and / or one or more prisms, and / or one or more light guides. A user-operable input element may be provided on the oral scanner that can start the optical scanning procedure upon operation by the user. The oral scanner may comprise two or more cameras arranged to enable a three-dimensional scan of at least a portion of the oral cavity.

[0029] The oral scanner may comprise a second light source and potentially additional light sources. Different light sources may use the same light outlet, or each light source may have its own light outlet. The first light source can emit light having a first wavelength or a first wavelength range, and the second light source can emit light having a second wavelength different from the first wavelength, or a second wavelength range that does not overlap or only partially overlaps with the first wavelength or the first wavelength range of the first light source. Additionally or alternatively, the first and second light sources may be arranged to emit different light intensities. However, this does not exclude the possibility that the first and second light sources are provided to have essentially the same wavelength or the same wavelength range and emit light of essentially the same intensity. As an example, the first light source can emit light having a wavelength with a main wavelength of about 405 nm or including it, and the second light source can emit "white" light, that is, light that essentially covers the complete visible wavelength range between 400 nm and 700 nm or includes several main wavelengths, so that a human can essentially regard the color impression of the emitted light as white. The light sources are not limited to light sources that emit light in the visible range, and any light source that emits in the infrared (IR) or ultraviolet (UV) wavelength range, or at least includes a wavelength range covering these regions, is also considered in the same way. The first and / or second light source (and any additional light sources) may be realized by a light-emitting diode (LED), but other light sources, such as laser diodes, conventional light bulbs, especially incandescent bulbs, halogen light sources, gas discharge lamps, arc lamps, etc. are also conceivable.

[0030] The camera may comprise an array of optoelectronic sensor elements, and each optoelectronic sensor element may be arranged to output a signal indicative of the light intensity incident on the optoelectronic region of the optoelectronic sensor element. Each of the optoelectronic sensor elements may have an individual sensitivity range, i.e., an individual wavelength sensitivity, but the array of optoelectronic sensor elements may typically comprise optoelectronic sensor elements all having substantially the same light sensitivity (typical, ignoring differences such as gain which are addressed by calibration). The array of optoelectronic sensor elements may be realized as a regular M×N array, but does not exclude the optoelectronic sensor elements being arranged in different ways, for example, in concentric circles, etc. The array of optoelectronic sensor elements may be realized as a CCD chip or a CMOS chip as typically used in a digital camera. The number of optoelectronic sensor elements may be selected according to the requirements and processing capabilities of the processor. A resolution of 640×480 may be one option, but essentially all other resolutions are conceivable, for example, the camera may be a 4K camera having a resolution of 3840×2160, or the camera may have a lower resolution, for example, a resolution of 320×240. It is not excluded that the camera includes a line sensor as typically used in a paper scanner.

[0031] In the context of the present application, the optoelectronic sensor element includes an RGB sensor element, i.e., each optoelectronic sensor element of the RGB type supplies three signals related to the R (red), G (green), and B (blue) color channels.

[0032] The camera of the oral scanner is not precluded from being implemented as a pinhole camera, but may include additional optical elements such as at least one sensor lens for focusing light onto the array of optoelectronic sensor elements. The camera may further include at least one sensor mirror for directing light onto the array. Additionally, the camera may include at least one sensor filter that selectively absorbs or transmits light of a specific wavelength or at least one wavelength range. The at least one sensor filter may be fixed or movable, i.e., the sensor filter may be arranged to move inside and outside the optical path of the camera. To enable selective filtering of the light reaching the array of optoelectronic sensor elements, several sensor filters may be provided. The sensor filter may be a long-pass filter, a short-pass filter, a band-pass filter, or a monochromatic filter. The sensor filter may apply wavelength-dependent filter characteristics such that a specific wavelength or wavelength range can only pass through with a reduced amplitude, another wavelength or wavelength range can pass through without attenuation, and yet another wavelength or wavelength range can be completely blocked. The sensor filter may be implemented as a color filter or a dichroic filter.

[0033] The first light source may be a narrow-band light source such as an LED. The narrow-band light source can emit light in the range of 390 nm to 410 nm (FWHM) such that a wavelength of approximately 405 nm is at least close to the main wavelength of the LED. As already mentioned, the light of approximately 405 nm causes fluorescence to be emitted by the tooth enamel and dental plaque. Subsequently, a sensor filter that transmits only light having a wavelength greater than approximately 430 nm may be used. Preferably, the sensor filter is a cut-off filter having a cut-off wavelength of 450 nm that allows light of a longer wavelength to pass towards the optoelectronic sensor element array such that the reflected light rays originating from the first light source are absorbed and only the fluorescence transmitted by the sensor filter is determined.

[0034] The camera may be implemented by a camera module available, for example, from Bison Electronics Inc. in Taiwan. Without limitation, the camera module may include a photoelectric sensor array having 1976×1200 M×N pixel count (i.e., a 2.4 megapixel chip) implemented with CMOS technology, although not all pixels are necessarily used to capture an image during scanning. The camera module may include a lens providing a focal length of 12.5 mm so as to be able to capture a sharp image of an object close to the camera. This does not exclude the use of an autofocus camera. A hyperspectral imaging camera may also be used.

[0035] Examples related to optical sensors, particularly cameras, should not be understood as limiting. At least one oral health sensor may further be realized as one from a group including, without limitation, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, pH sensors, refractive index sensors, resistance sensors, impedance sensors, conductivity sensors, biosensors such as sensors including biological detection elements, for example, immobilized biological activity systems combined with physical sensors (transducers) that convert biological chemical signals into electrical or optical signals and typically include amplifiers, etc.

[0036] As already explained, the oral health sensor acquires and outputs oral health sensor data transmitted in the form of analog or digital signals, and the processor may be arranged to process the oral health sensor data to determine oral health data and / or state class data, preferably state class data related to the oral health state.

[0037] Position sensor The term "position sensor" encompasses all position sensor configurations that can determine the discrete position or location or segment at which the oral scanner head performs a scan procedure at a given time within the oral cavity, and may also include such determinations for at least one discrete position or location or segment related to the outside of the oral cavity. The use of the term "position sensor" does not mean that the position sensor itself can directly determine a position inside or outside the oral cavity, but rather that discrete positions or discrete locations or segments inside or outside the oral cavity can be derived from position sensor data, for example, by deterministic calculations based on inputs from the position sensor, by decision trees, by clustering, or by classification algorithms. The processor may be configured and / or arranged to perform such determination of discrete positions or locations or segments, based at least on position sensor data. Oral health sensors such as cameras may further provide position sensor data, i.e., the oral health sensor may additionally be used as a position sensor, or a further camera may be provided as a position sensor. As an example, image data provided by a camera provided on the head of an oral scanner may be used to determine the type of tooth imaged and thus to derive the discrete position or discrete location or segment within the scanned oral cavity (see European Patent No. 2189198 (B1) below).

[0038] European Patent No. 3141151 (A1) describes a positioning based on the fusion of, among other things, image data from a camera that acquires an image of a user while performing an oral care activity using an oral care device (this camera is separate from the oral care device) and data from an accelerometer disposed within the oral care device to determine the orientation of the oral care device with respect to the Earth's gravitational field. On the one hand, based on the classification of the image data created at a given time by a machine learning algorithm specifically trained for each of one of the positions, and on the other hand, based on the classification of the orientation angle determined from the accelerometer data at the same time, a fused positioning result is calculated. The classification algorithm outputs values similar to the probabilities for a plurality of positions within the oral cavity where the oral care activity can be performed. The highest measure typically indicates the location where the activity is being performed with a certain level of confidence. European Patent No. 3141151 (A1) is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification. The position sensor in this example comprises a separate camera as the first position sensor and an accelerometer disposed within an oral care device (which may be an oral scanner according to the present disclosure) as the second position sensor. This shows that the term "position sensor" does not refer to a single sensor configuration but encompasses embodiments where a "position sensor" uses two or more different position sensors to provide position sensor data.

[0039] European Patent Application Publication No. 3528172 (A2) describes, among other things, the determination of discrete positions or locations or segments within the oral cavity where an oral care activity is currently being performed, and this determination depends on the classification of position sensor data, which is a time series of inertial sensor data generated, for example, by an accelerometer and / or a gyroscope located within an oral care device, using a neural network, preferably a recurrent neural network. Based on the trained neural network, the classification of the current time sequence of position sensor data provides a set of values similar to the probabilities for a plurality of possible discrete positions or locations within the oral cavity. The highest value typically indicates the location where the activity is being performed. European Patent No. 3528172 (A2) is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification.

[0040] Each of the above-mentioned techniques and the techniques mentioned in the following paragraphs of this section can be used for determining discrete positions or locations within the oral cavity where an oral scanner according to the present disclosure is performing a scanning procedure, although other techniques can be used as well. For example, tracking the positions of a user's head and toothbrush within a calibrated magnetic field or using ultrasonic emitters on the user's head and toothbrush to track the movement of both within a calibrated ultrasonic receiver configuration so as to be able to determine the relative position of the toothbrush with respect to the user's head and thus with respect to the user's oral cavity. Similarly, IR emitters and receivers may be used. Further techniques, such as motion tracking techniques using multiple cameras known from CGI videos, can be used as well.

[0041] The latter techniques can determine discrete positions or locations where oral care activities, such as toothbrushing, are performed with relatively high accuracy (e.g., at the level of individual teeth), and the accuracy can justify the use of the term "position" (this position is still mapped onto a "segment" which can still represent a single tooth or a group of teeth). The techniques described in the previous paragraph were not developed at least at the time of filing of the present disclosure to yield such high accuracy and may enable determining one of 16 different segments in the dental arch where oral care activities are performed. The term "position" may then be more suitable as the determination typically relates to a group of teeth (e.g., upper left molars) or a group of surfaces of a group of teeth (e.g., the buccal surface of the lower right molars). In a more general sense, the term "segment" is used to indicate a discrete position or discrete location.

[0042] European Patent No. 2189198 (B1) describes determining discrete positions or locations within the oral cavity by analyzing camera data from a camera located on a toothbrush head. The analysis of the image data is described as being able to identify teeth shown in the image. It can be contemplated that a classifier is trained using labeled images of the user's teeth and / or other parts of the oral cavity so that a processor can reliably identify the position within the oral cavity where a scanning procedure is currently being performed.

[0043] U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010 / 0170052 (A1) describes determining discrete positions or locations within the oral cavity where oral care activities are being performed by an oral care device by analyzing images from a separately positioned camera that images the user's face and the oral care device. European Patent No. 2189198 (B1) and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010 / 0170052 (A1) are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

[0044] Processor hardware The processor may be any kind of general-purpose integrated circuit (e.g., IC: CPU) or application-specific integrated circuit (e.g., ASIC), and may be implemented by a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a system-on-chip (SOC), an embedded system, etc. The processor should not necessarily be understood as a single circuit or chip. One part of the processing task may be executed by a first processor subunit, and one or several further processing tasks may be executed by at least a second or several further processor subunits in a distributed manner. It is contemplated to provide the processor in a distributed way, and different processor subunits may be physically disposed at different locations, such as within or in an oral scanner, within or in a remote device, and / or within or in a cloud computer. The processor may be essentially fully realized by a cloud computing device. The processor may also include analog circuit elements and integrated circuit elements, or only analog circuit elements.

[0045] The processor has at least one input and at least one output. The processor receives sensor data and / or oral care activity data from the oral care device via the input, and outputs oral health data and / or state class data and / or control data, preferably discretely located or location-resolved oral health data and / or state class data and / or control data, via the output. The state class data refers to data that classifies oral health (sensor) data into at least one of at least two state classes, for example, a non-severe class and a severe class, or more than two classes, for example, a non-severe class, a monitored class, and a class recommended for an oral care expert visit. The latter example is for illustration purposes, and those skilled in the art can use any other number of classes and can appropriately name these classes.

[0046] Processor Software: Classification As described in various previous paragraphs, the processor is configured and / or arranged to classify oral health sensor data and / or oral health data into at least two state classes. In more mathematical terms, oral health (sensor) data (preferably for a given discrete position or location) may be said to be an observation, the state classes are categories, and a classifier algorithm may then be used to determine the category to which the observation belongs. Oral health (sensor) data may include one or several variables or features characterizing the oral health state. For example, the oral health data may include the normalized plaque area for each considered discrete position or location. The classifier may then simply label the input features (plaque size) into categories by comparison with one or several thresholds. The threshold(s) themselves may be derived from expert opinion or from the analysis of the oral health states of multiple subjects by a machine learning algorithm. Instead of using features or a vector of features derived from the oral health sensor data, the oral health sensor data may be used as input to the classifier without preprocessing. For example, a neural network may be directly fed with image data acquired by an oral health sensor equipped with a camera.

[0047] Thresholds or other parameters affecting the classification may be set to different values for different discrete positions or locations within the oral cavity. Such discrete position- or location-dependent thresholds or parameters affecting the classification for a given oral health state may be influenced, preferably, by at least one from a non-limiting list including, in a comprehensive sense (i.e., for all users) or for an individual, the discrete position or location within the oral cavity, the oral health (sensor) data or the history of the development of the state classes related to this discrete position or location for a given oral health state, or the overall or average oral health state status for a given user.

[0048] The above-described threshold-based approach for classification may be practical for oral health data that includes one or two features per oral health state, but different classifier algorithms may be used if the oral health data includes multiple features. For example, a neural network may be applied to the classification task or any other classification algorithm known to those skilled in the art. The classification algorithm may be selected to be one from a non-limiting list including linear classifiers, support vector machines, quadratic classifiers, kernel estimation, boosting, decision trees, neural networks, transformers, genetic programming, and learning vector quantization.

[0049] The state classes may be determined for at least one of at least two discrete positions or locations, preferably for all discrete positions and locations used to subdivide at least a portion of the scanned oral cavity into segments. In each of such discrete positions or locations, at least two state classes may be defined, preferably at least three state classes may be used (similar to a traffic signal system indicating any of green, yellow, or red lights). The underlying thresholds or parameters used by the classifier algorithm may be adaptive and thus may change over time and may be different for different users.

[0050] Processor Software: Time Evaluation According to some aspects, the oral scanner system proposed herein is intended to periodically repeat a scanning procedure, such as an optical scanning procedure of at least a portion of a user's or a subject's oral cavity, thereby creating new oral health (sensor) data. The oral scanner system may preferably be configured and / or arranged to compare newly determined oral health (sensor) data and / or state class data with previously created oral health (sensor) data and / or state class data, and update information regarding the temporal evolution of the oral health (sensor) data and state class data, which may then lead to the updated information being fed back to the user. The comparison process may result in comparison data and / or discretely position-resolved or location-resolved comparison data. The processor may include a memory for storing and later accessing the previously and currently acquired oral health sensor data and / or position sensor data, and any data created by processing such data, for example, oral health data and / or state class data and / or discretely position-resolved or location-resolved oral health sensor data and / or discretely position-resolved or location-resolved state class data, and may further include comparison data and / or discretely position-resolved or location-resolved comparison data. The stored data related to the previous scanning procedure is also referred to as history data. In addition to the data just described, further data, for example, history scan procedure progress data or history oral care activity data related to previous oral care activity procedures performed by an oral care device, may be stored in the memory, and this oral care activity data may be transmitted to and stored in the memory by the processor. The history data stored in the memory may further be used by the processor to adapt the next scanning procedure, for example, to adapt at least one scanning procedure parameter, and / or to adapt the scanning procedure guidance including at least one automatic feedback provided to the user immediately before or during the next scanning procedure.That is, it means that the scan procedure guidance is automatically displayed immediately before the next scan procedure, rather than being displayed at the end of the current scan procedure, and the user can basically benefit from such guidance in the scan procedure that is about to be started. The scan procedure guidance may be determined in a segmented manner, that is, for each discrete position or location in the oral cavity. Then, such segmented scan procedure guidance may be automatically shown when the user reaches each segment.

[0051] Display The oral scanner system may include a display as a feedback element of the feedback unit, preferably a display that enables a visual depiction of oral health data and / or status class data and / or oral scan progress data. The display may be any type of display such as an LCD, LED, OLED (PMOLED or AMOLED) display. The display may be a monochromatic or color display. The display may have any suitable resolution such as a 96×48 resolution for a display mounted on the oral scanner, or may include a custom-made illuminable area. Since the displays of user devices such as mobile phones, tablet computers, laptops, smartwatches, etc. can be used, the respective technologies and resolutions of the displays of such user devices should be considered. In such a case, the app or software executed on such a device may provide relevant programming for the general-purpose processor of the user device so as to function as at least one processor subunit or as a processor according to the present disclosure. Each app or software may further implement any display control required to visualize information, as discussed herein.

[0052] This description of the display does not exclude that oral health (sensor) data, scan procedure progress data, etc. are additionally or alternatively fed back to the user by other feedback elements of a feedback unit such as a plurality of individual visual feedback elements and / or audio feedback elements and / or tactile feedback units as already described. By way of example, assuming that the oral cavity is segmented into four positions and / or locations, for which the scan procedure is monitored and oral health data is alternatively or additionally fed back, the scan procedure progress data can be fed back by using four visual feedback elements that are controlled to start with a first color, for example dark green, and to gradually show a lighter green until the scan procedure is considered complete for a given discrete position or location, after which the light indicator can show, for example, a white signal. For this purpose, RGB light-emitting diodes by the light feedback elements can be used. Similarly, live communication of oral health data regarding, for example, dental plaque can also use four visual feedback elements, starting with white to indicate the absence of dental plaque and gradually changing towards red to communicate the amount of dental plaque detected at each discrete position or location. Instead of live feedback, the oral health data may be fed back to the user only at the end of the scan procedure to indicate the level of dental plaque identified in the scan procedure. Then, the classification of the oral health data regarding dental plaque may be indicated by a blinking light of the status class "severe". A person skilled in the art will understand how to modify the number of visual feedback elements, the colors used, and other feedback means such as blinking, intensity changes, etc.

[0053] Display software The display is assumed to comprise a display controller that converts oral health (sensor) data, preferably position-resolved or location-resolved oral health (sensor) data and / or state class data and / or scan procedure progress data into a visualization presented on the display, and the visualization is referred to as a feedback screen. The feedback screen may include at least one element of a graphical user interface. In the present disclosure, the focus is on a feedback screen that includes a visualization of at least a portion of the oral cavity, and the visualization may be a two-dimensional visualization or a 3D type of visualization, where the latter means a visualization on a two-dimensional display that provides a three-dimensional impression. The visualization of at least a portion of the oral cavity may include a visualization of the dentition, i.e., a visualization of the teeth of the dentition, and may be an abstract visualization or a more realistic visualization. The visualization may be based on a general model of the dentition or may take into account individual data from the user, such as missing teeth. An abstract visualization of a complete dentition may include a circle or a ring, and the upper part of the circle or ring visualized on the display may be understood to represent the upper front teeth, and the bottom part of the circle or ring may represent the lower front teeth, in which case the sides may represent the left and right molars, respectively. Instead of a continuous circle or ring, a plurality of segments of the circle or ring may be visualized. For example, an upper segment of about 180 degrees and a lower segment of about 180 degrees may each show the upper and lower jaws. Alternatively, four segments of about 90 degrees can be used to display a quarter section of the dentition, which is known to those skilled in the art, for example, from the visualization on an Oral-B SmartGuide. Further, six segments may be used. It is also contemplated to visualize each tooth of the general or individualized dentition by a single segment or to use any other type of segmentation that may be considered appropriate by those skilled in the art. At least one of the segments may be separated into at least two regions that can represent the inner and outer tooth surfaces, preferably three regions representing the inner and outer tooth surfaces (such as the buccal and lingual surfaces) and the occlusal surface, which may be particularly sensitive in molars and canines. This is not to exclude any other type of fragmentation of the segmented visualization.Although the segment has been described here as a circular or annular portion, it is also conceivable to visualize the segment in a different way. For example, each tooth may be represented by a circle, or the segment representing a plurality of teeth may be visualized as a plurality of overlapping circles, and the number of circles may coincide with the number of teeth typically represented by this segment, but should not be understood as limiting. The visualization of the dental arch may include information as used in accordance with ISO3950:2016. Some exemplary visualizations will be further described below with reference to the drawings.

[0054] Instead of an abstract visualization, a more realistic depiction of the dentition may be selected, for example, up to 32 teeth for the permanent dentition of an adult user or up to 24 teeth for the primary dentition of a child. As already mentioned, the visualization may be individualized. For example, the user may be able to input personal dental features such as missing teeth, misaligned teeth, fillings, inlays, crowns, artificial teeth, orthodontic appliances, etc. that may be considered in the visualization. As further explained below, the user may further be enabled to provide information about the oral health status of at least one surface of a tooth, at least one tooth, a group of teeth, or the complete dentition, and / or about the gums. For example, the user may be able to provide input regarding tooth discoloration or orthodontic appliances or cavities, and an oral scanner and / or a separate device may be able to provide an interface for inputting the information. Instead of manual input, the oral scanner may be configured and / or arranged to perform a scanning procedure that automatically individualizes the visualization in at least a portion of the oral cavity based on the associated information obtained from the oral cavity. The interface described above may be implemented as a graphical user interface, but does not preclude the user from additionally or alternatively providing input by means of a voice recognition interface and / or a keyboard, etc. The interface may further enable the user to input personalization information such as name, email address, etc., and / or may enable dedicated access by a dentist to any stored data, which may preferably be enabled, for example, by remote access from a computer in the dentist's office.

[0055] The above does not exclude that the visualization of at least a portion of the oral cavity further includes the tongue, preferably various regions of the tongue, the inner side of the cheek, the lips, the uvula, the pharynx, the palate, etc. In some visualizations, at least one of the aforementioned parts such as the tongue and the complete dentition and at least one part of the dentition are visualized.

[0056] This abstract or more realistic visualization of at least a portion of the oral cavity provides a map in which additional data, such as oral health data or scan procedure progress data, can be visualized so that the user can associate additional information with locations or positions within the oral cavity.

[0057] The visualization referred to can be used in a manifold feedback application. For example, the visualization may be used to provide feedback regarding the progress of a scan procedure in real-time, i.e., in a live manner, which means that the discrete position or location at which the oral scanner is currently performing the scan procedure, and each respective visualized segment associated with this discrete position or location, may then be modified so that the progress of the scan procedure can be understood by the user. The visualized segments on which the scan procedure is performed may be additionally visually emphasized, for example, by a halo or similar visual scale, to enable the user to immediately identify the location at which the scan is being performed with the oral scanner. An example has already been described where the coloring of each segment starts with a first color and gradually changes to a second color (where white and black are understood to be colors here). It should be understood that this example refers to a gradual change from one color to another, but is not limiting. For example, the start color and end color may be selected to be different for different segments. There is no need to have a gradual change. A stepwise change or a single step from the start color to the end color is also envisioned. Further, instead of or in addition to color, the segments can include start and end patterns for visualizing the scan progress.

[0058] Interaction with Oral Care Devices As described above, the oral scanner system may include an oral care device such as an electric toothbrush, an electric floss device, or an electric cleaning device provided for performing oral care activities such as tooth cleaning, interdental area cleaning, and gum massage. The oral care device preferably has its own oral care device position sensor (e.g., an IMU sensor) such that the discrete position or location within the oral cavity where an oral care activity procedure such as brushing or flossing or cleaning is performed can be determined independently of the determination of the discrete position or location of the oral scanner. Additionally or alternatively, the discrete position or location where the oral care device performs the oral care activity procedure may be at least partially determined by using the same position detector that serves to determine the discrete position or location of the oral scanner (e.g., by the same external camera), i.e., the position sensor of the oral scanner may be a shared position sensor.

[0059] The use of a single oral scanner for performing an oral scan procedure and a single oral care device for performing oral care activities is an interaction between the oral scanner and the oral care device. For example, the oral scanner may provide control data received by the oral care device, and this control data affects the oral care activities as long as at least one oral care guidance is triggered by the control data or at least the operating parameters are affected by the control data. The control data can, in particular, cause guidance or influence in a discretely position-resolved, or discretely location-resolved, or segment-by-segment manner. The single oral scanner can be used to perform a dedicated scan procedure that is not affected by any parallel oral care activities, and the oral care device can be used to perform a dedicated oral care activity that is not obstructed by any parallel scan procedures. Data collected during the oral care activities can likewise be used to determine control data that can be transmitted to the oral scanner to affect the next oral scan procedure, for example, to restrict or focus the scan on segments that were not properly cared for during the oral care activities. An oral care system comprising an oral scanner and an oral care device adds benefits to the mere juxtaposition of the two devices.

[0060] An oral care device may include a device communicator, such as a receiver or transceiver, for receiving at least control data from a processor via a processor communicator, the control data may specifically be used to select one from at least two different operating settings of the oral care device, preferably, the control data is used to select one from at least two different operating settings in a discrete position or location-dependent manner, i.e., in a segmented manner. Such operating settings may be related to the recommended time for performing an oral care activity procedure generally or at a specific discrete position or location, or may be related to the recommended minimum and / or maximum pressure or force values applied by the oral care head generally or at a specific discrete position or location, or may be related to the feedback provided to the user when a specific discrete position or location is being treated, or may be related to the operating mode used generally or at a specific discrete position or location, in which case, the oral care device may be arranged to automatically switch to this mode by the received control data. The operating mode may preferably be a motion mode in which the oral care head of the oral care device is driven, and may include at least one parameter from a list including speed, frequency, and amplitude.

[0061] Exemplary embodiments While not wishing to be limiting, the present disclosure focuses on an oral scanner system comprising an oral scanner, a processor, and a position sensor. The oral scanner is configured and / or arranged to perform a scanning procedure of at least a portion of the oral cavity, such as a portion of the dentition or the entire dentition, and / or a greater portion or other portion of the oral cavity, such as the tongue. The position sensor is configured and / or arranged to acquire and output position sensor data associated with discrete positions or locations (or segments) within the oral cavity, and at the discrete positions or locations within the oral cavity, the oral scanner is performing a scanning procedure at the present time or has performed a scanning procedure at a given time, where the time includes the period necessary to acquire the oral health sensor data and the respective position data. In the case of an extended time period, the central time can be used as the time. Thus, at least a portion of the oral cavity can be divided into at least two discrete positions or locations (or segments) as already discussed. The processor is configured and / or arranged to determine the discrete position or location (or segment) at which the oral scanner is performing or has performed a scanning procedure and to determine the progress of the scanning procedure for at least two discrete positions or locations (or segments), both determinations being made based at least on the position sensor data. That is, it means that the processor is configured and / or arranged to update the progress of the scanning procedure for each of at least two discrete positions or locations, and for example, in the case of connected discrete positions or locations, even if the progress of the scanning procedure for at least two discrete positions or locations changes simultaneously, the progress of the scanning procedure for discrete positions or locations where the oral scan is not currently performing the scanning procedure may not change. It should be understood that the present disclosure refers only to connected discrete portions, if explicitly mentioned. Discrete positions or locations are typically intended to be non-connected, and the complete set of discrete positions or locations is intended to cover at least a portion of the oral cavity that is scanned in a gapless manner. An example of a connected segment may be an example where the upper anterior teeth and the lower anterior teeth are connected (such as when individually indicated by an illuminated display portion or a light emitting diode, etc.).However, the processor need not be configured and arranged to distinguish scanner positions in the upper or lower front teeth, and thus, determination of the scanner position in the connected front tooth segment increases the progress of the scan procedure for both individual segments simultaneously. The oral scanner may comprise at least one oral health sensor configured and / or arranged to obtain oral health sensor data regarding at least one oral health condition and output such oral health sensor data received by the processor.

[0062] Depending on the type of scan procedure, oral health sensor data may need to be acquired over a period of time from a given segment, or if the segment has a certain size, such as extending across the buccal surface of the lower right molar, scan data, i.e., oral health sensor data, needs to be acquired from two or more sub - positions or sub - locations within the segment to complete a scan of at least a portion of the oral cavity at a given discrete position or location (or segment). This method is described in more detail below. Thus, in some examples, being at a discrete position or location only once may not be sufficient to complete the scan procedure. In this specification, it is contemplated that the progress of the scan procedure is calculated and provided as feedback to the user by a feedback unit during the scan procedure, for example, by a visual feedback element that can vary individual colors and / or individual patterns, and / or by depicting a percentage level assigned to a discrete position or location (or segment). In summary, the feedback that is intended to be provided is a single piece of information for each of the segments, and the single piece of information can be provided by a (normalized) number, for example, a percentage score indicating the progress of the scan procedure for each of the segments, or a color from a list of colors indicating the progress of the scan procedure for each of the segments. Instead of numbers or colors, patterns or audible signals or tactile feedback may be used, and it should always be understood that one easily understandable piece of information is provided to the user for each segment of a plurality of segments. The feedback may in particular be live or real - time feedback, i.e., feedback provided to the user with only a short time delay such that the user can adapt the scan movement to achieve the complete scan progress, i.e., the complete scan progress at all discrete positions or locations (or segments). Such a time delay may be about 10 seconds or less, preferably about 5 seconds or less, more preferably about 2 seconds or less, and even more preferably about 1 second or less.

[0063] Examples of position sensors have already been described. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) comprising an accelerometer and / or gyroscope located on or within an oral scanner is contemplated, preferably an IMU implemented as a MEMS sensor. Further, it is again noted here that an oral health sensor for acquiring oral health sensor data may also function as a position sensor simultaneously. Image data output by a camera of an oral health sensor may be classified, for example, by a classifier algorithm to determine whether it belongs to a particular discrete position or location (or segment). As described above, data from the IMU sensor may be classified in parallel and the results may be fused, i.e., mathematically combined, to determine a discrete position or location, or features derived from the IMU data and image data, or IMU data and / or image data, may be input into a classifier algorithm to determine a discrete position or location. It has also been explained that the scanning procedure may be for the purpose of generating oral health sensor data by using an oral health sensor configured and / or arranged to acquire and output oral health sensor data related to at least one oral health condition such as dental plaque. The oral health sensor may comprise an optical sensor such as an M×N array of optoelectronic sensor elements and may be implemented as a camera for taking images. In some cases, oral health sensor data may already provide a direct insight into the oral health condition (see, for example, the discussion of the bad breath sensor above), but it is contemplated that the processor may be configured and / or arranged to process the oral health sensor data to determine oral health data that is a direct measure of the oral condition or enables a simpler assessment of the oral health condition. For example, if the oral health sensor is a camera, the oral health sensor data is image data and the processor can process the image data to determine oral health data, which may be related to dental plaque and / or carious lesions and / or tooth loss or discoloration visible in the image. Reference is made to the list of oral conditions described above.The processor may be further arranged to classify the oral health sensor data and / or the oral health data with respect to at least two state classes. That is, the processor is configured and / or arranged to determine state classification data. The oral health data and the classification results may in particular also determine at least two of at least two discrete positions or locations (or segments), and a more comprehensive oral health state is determined that covers at least two positions and / or locations, and / or at least two oral health states. Further, the feedback unit may be configured and / or arranged to provide feedback regarding the oral health data and / or the state classification data either during the scanning procedure and / or at the end of the scanning procedure. The feedback unit may in particular comprise at least one feedback element for visual, auditory and / or tactile or haptic feedback regarding the progress of the scanning procedure, the oral health data and / or the state classification data, especially when such feedback is provided as position-resolved or location-resolved feedback. As described above, by providing progress information in an easily understandable way, it is easy for the user to scan segments that require further scanning and jump over segments that have already been fully scanned. Thus, the focus of the invention is on the feedback provided for the scanning procedure feedback during the scanning procedure in order to continuously guide the user to achieve a complete scanning procedure within a minimum period of time. The easily digestible information enables in particular home use by lay users. Feedback provided in a way that requires the user to perform his own interpretation or analysis, etc. is not very suitable for achieving this goal. The feedback unit may comprise at least two visual feedback elements for feedback regarding position-resolved or location-resolved feedback. The feedback unit may in particular comprise a display, and the processor may be configured and / or arranged to provide feedback via a graphical user interface.

[0064] The feedback unit may be provided by a separate device such as a unique device (e.g., a charger with a display), a computer, a notebook, a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone, or a smartwatch. The processor may be at least partially provided by a separate device. It is contemplated that the separate units or devices described herein may communicate in a wireless manner. For example, each of the units or devices may include a dedicated communicator for establishing at least one-way or two-way wireless communication. As already described, the feedback unit can provide an abstract or more realistic visualization of at least a portion of the oral cavity being scanned, such as a depiction of the dentition, which is taken as an example. The visualization of the dentition may be overlaid with the visualization of the scan procedure progress data, oral health data, and / or status classification data. The term "overlaid" should be understood to mean that a two-dimensional image based on the depiction of the dentition may be displayed, and may additionally include further information being depicted, and / or coloring or patterning of at least a portion of the depiction of the dentition. The two-dimensional image may include elements of a graphical user interface.

[0065] The scan procedure progress is determined by the processor for at least two discrete positions or locations (or segments), and it has already been stated that thereby the processor determines the scan procedure progress data. The scan procedure progress may depend on at least one of the following: the duration of the scan procedure at each discrete position or location (or segment), the length, speed, acceleration, or direction of motion, such as derived from position sensor data at each discrete position or location, the collection of oral health sensor data of preferably non-overlapping or only partially overlapping content at each discrete position or location, preferably the number of image data collections by a camera, the number of sub-positions or sub-locations determined based on the position sensor data at each discrete position or location, or the quality assessment of the oral health sensor data at each discrete position or location, preferably the quality assessment of the image data by a camera.

[0066] Provide some more detailed explanations about the above possibilities. (a) In some cases, it may be necessary to acquire oral health sensor data several times at the same discrete position or location so that the oral health sensor data can be averaged to achieve higher reliability. Next, the processor may be configured and / or arranged to determine the progress of the scan procedure based on the number of oral health data collections per discrete position or location (or segment) and / or the length of presence at a given discrete position or location (or segment). (b) A scanner that can be used by the processor to determine discrete positions or locations (or segments) executes the scan procedure using position sensor data. However, although the discrete positions or locations determined by the processor may be the same over several times, the oral scanner is typically moved. The processor may use the position sensor data to determine the length of movement during this time when the oral scanner is determined to be at one discrete position or location. This can be done by double integrating the acceleration data of the accelerometer. For example, the length of the buccal surface of the upper left molar may be about 3 cm, and the processor may then determine whether the movement in one direction within the current segment is close to or exceeds 3 cm, and then may determine that the scan procedure is complete for this discrete position or location. If the length of movement in a direction that may coincide with the elongation direction of the molar, for example, a direction perpendicular to the earth's gravitational field, is determined to be 2 cm, the processor may provide feedback that about two-thirds or 66% of the scan procedure has been achieved. (c) The processor may be configured and / or arranged to provide discrete positions or locations only at the level of segments of the oral cavity having a particular size, for example for reasons of reliability, but the inherent resolution of the positioning may be higher, and the processor may check whether various sub-positions within a given segment where feedback is determined and provided have been visited by the oral scanner in order to determine the progress of the scanning procedure. That is, at the computational level, discrete positions or locations may be determined at the resolution of individual tooth surfaces, meaning that feedback is provided only for segments containing groups of tooth surfaces and / or groups of teeth, etc. (d) The processor may use a camera, such as a camera that implements an oral health sensor, as an additional source in addition to, for example, an accelerometer or a gyroscope. The processor may identify teeth on the image data and / or stitch together images from subsequent time instances acquired at different sub-positions within the same discrete position or location (or segment) such that the images are configured and / or arranged to create a panoramic image. The length of the imaged tooth at a given discrete position or location may then be determined based on the average size of the tooth at the given discrete position or location or, for example, assuming that a certain focal length was used, based on the assumed size of the imaged area per pixel, which can be confirmed by checking the image quality, specifically the sharpness of the image. The image stitching method is also described in a co-pending patent application having international patent application number PCT / CN2022 / 082673, which patent application is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification. (e) If the oral health sensor is a camera, the progress of the scanning procedure may depend on the quality of the image. The processor may be configured or arranged to determine the image quality, such as sharpness, and the progress of the scanning procedure may depend on the number of images acquired with a particular image quality.

[0067] Generally, the processor may also use the scan time for discrete positions or locations and / or the overall scan time, and may be configured and / or arranged to increase the progress of the scan procedure when the time per discrete position or location or the overall scan exceeds a specific threshold value.

[0068] The oral scanner system may be configured and / or arranged to provide additional feedback to the user, or to perform a specific action when the scan procedure progress reaches a specific progress level value for a given discrete position or location, or when a predetermined progress level value is achieved for all discrete positions or locations. Such an action may be the termination of the scan activity and / or an indication that the complete scan procedure has ended. The user may further receive specific feedback that a discrete position or location requires further scan activity, for example, additional visually perceptible highlighting of the discrete position or location depicted visually, or an audible message such as an audio message or a tactile feedback, for example, the oral scanner may vibrate at discrete positions or locations that have already been scanned sufficiently.

[0069] The processor stores data such as oral health (sensor) data and / or position data and / or oral care activity data, preferably in a discretized or discretely located manner, i.e., in a segmented manner, with respect to a scanning procedure or oral care activity performed by an oral care device communicatively coupled to the processor, and has a memory for accessing such data from at least one previous scanning procedure or one previous oral care activity during or prior to the current scanning procedure. Based on such stored data from the previous scan procedure and / or oral care activity, the processor may provide individualized feedback and guidance to the user, or the processor may adapt the next or ongoing scan procedure based on such stored data. For example, the processor may skip a particular discrete position or location, i.e., a segment, in the visualization of the progress of the current scan procedure, and / or highlight a particular discrete position or location in the feedback that requires more attention than other discrete positions or locations. This may be the case when the previous status classification for a discrete position or location indicates a more severe oral health condition than other discrete positions or locations, or when only incomplete oral care activities have been previously performed at a particular discrete position or location and the oral health at this discrete position or location may require particular attention.

[0070] According to one aspect, the focus of the present disclosure is an oral scanner system comprising an oral scanner, a processor, and a position sensor implemented as an accelerometer and / or gyroscope, further comprising an oral health sensor comprising a camera arranged to acquire image data from the oral cavity, wherein the processor is configured and / or arranged to determine optical scan procedure progress values for at least two discrete positions or locations or segments and provide feedback for each segment to the user via a feedback unit. All that has been described for the previous aspect should be considered to have been described also for this aspect.

[0071] Consideration of Embodiments with Reference to Drawings FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an exemplary oral scanner system 1 according to the present disclosure. The oral scanner system 1 includes an exemplary oral scanner 100 configured and arranged alone to perform an oral scan procedure without oral care activities, and a processor 200, which in this example is disposed in or within the oral scanner 100. The oral scanner 100 includes a handle portion 101 and a head portion 102. An oral health sensor 110 is disposed in or on the oral scanner 100. Generally, two or more different oral health sensors may be used and thus may be disposed in or on the oral scanner 100. In the illustrated example, at least one measurement inlet, such as a light inlet that cooperates with the oral health sensor 110, is provided in the head portion 102 so that acquisition of oral health data based on light measurement by the oral health sensor 110 is possible in the head portion 102. Here, the head portion 102 includes a flat transparent window 1021 surrounded by a frame structure 1022 that can preferably be arranged and / or configured to receive a removable attachment (see FIG. 2). The head portion 102 is sized to be conveniently introduced into the oral cavity of a human or an animal. The handle portion 101 is sized to be conveniently grasped by the hand of a human user. The handle portion 101 and the head portion 102 may be separable from each other. In some embodiments, the handle portion 101 can be equipped with different replaceable head portions in addition to an oral scanner head portion such as a brush head portion. The handle portion 101 may include at least one user-operable input element 103, such as an on / off button and / or a selector button or switch. The oral scanner 100 preferably has an outer housing 104 that may preferably be hollow to accommodate various internal components, such as a rechargeable energy source and preferably a related charging circuit for wireless charging of the energy source, and a circuit board including various electronic components for control of the oral scanner.Generally, the oral scanner 100 is configured and / or arranged to perform a scanning procedure of at least a portion of a subject's oral cavity, i.e., while the user holds and moves the oral scanner 100, the oral scanner acquires oral health sensor data to determine the progress of the scan, and preferably analyzes the oral health sensor data acquired regarding at least one oral health condition. It is understood that this is not limiting, but the processor 200 may be disposed on a circuit board. The processor 200 is coupled or connected to the oral health sensor 110 to receive a signal from the oral health sensor 110, i.e., to receive oral health sensor data at the processor 200. The processor 200 may be configured and / or arranged to process the oral health sensor data to derive or determine oral health data regarding at least one oral health condition such as dental plaque. In some embodiments, the oral health sensor may output oral health sensor data that is a direct measure of the relevant oral health condition, such that (where applicable) it may require only limited processing of the oral health sensor data, such as calculations of normalized values or some reduction to an integer. The processor 200 may further be configured and / or arranged to classify the oral health (sensor) data into at least two state classes related to at least one oral health condition, for example, an "oral health no concern" class (or "green" class) and an "oral health concern" class (or "red" class), and may be based on a comparison with at least one threshold value. Reference is made to each of the previous paragraphs where the classification is described in more detail. The classification may further be performed regarding at least three classes, for example, in addition to the "green" class, a "low concern" ("orange") class and a "high concern" ("red") class may result from the classification process. It should be noted again that one of the main aspects of this application is the provision of simple feedback (e.g., a single value or a single color or a single pattern, etc.) for each of the segments (discrete positions or locations) being scanned by the user by the feedback unit.The provision of this simple feedback requires some processing of oral health sensor data and / or position sensor data to determine a simple feedback (value) for each segment. The simple feedback may be, for example, a number or a color. In some embodiments, the color shown may vary essentially continuously to convey the feedback, and in some embodiments, the feedback may be limited to a binary or ternary feedback space provided by, for example, two numbers such as 0 and 1, or three numbers such as 0, 1, and 2, or two colors such as green and red, or three colors such as green, yellow, and red.

[0072] As already explained and as further explained with reference to FIG. 3, the oral scanner system 1 may further comprise at least one position sensor coupled or connected to the processor 200, whereby the processor 200 receives signals from the position sensor delivering position sensor data during operation, and the processor 200 can determine from the position sensor data the discrete positions or locations where the oral scanner is currently performing a scan procedure or was performing a scan procedure at a given time within the oral cavity. As defined above, a discrete position or discrete location means a segment of at least a part of the oral cavity being scanned, and a plurality of segments cover this part of the oral cavity being scanned without gaps and without overlapping. Time data regarding the absolute or relative time at which the data was acquired may be part of the position sensor data or may be part of the oral health sensor data as described above. The determination of the discrete positions or locations enables the processor 200 to calculate oral health data regarding at least one oral health condition and / or to classify the oral health sensor data and / or oral health data in a discrete position or location-resolved manner, i.e., for each of the segments mentioned, into at least two oral health condition classes. Oral health sensor data and position sensor data acquired essentially at the same time may be delivered together to the processor 200 due to the design of the oral scanner system, or the processor may be configured and / or arranged to assign oral health sensor data and position data having the same time information (“timestamp”) or time information that best matches each other, i.e., the closest time information (timestamp). The provision of the position sensor data and / or oral health sensor data may be done in a live manner, but each data may preferably be stored over a period of time together with time information and transmitted to the processor at a later point in time, for example, the data may be transmitted every 10 seconds or after the scan procedure has stopped or been completed. It is noted that the term “position sensor” includes embodiments where two discrete position sensors that together implement the “position sensor” are used, for example, an IMU provided in the oral scanner and a separate camera.

[0073] The oral scanner system 1 may include a feedback unit 120 for providing user-perceivable feedback, specifically, feedback composed of or at least including processed information for each segment, that is, single feedback provided in the form of color or a single value for each segment / discrete position or location. For example, as illustratively shown in FIG. 1, the oral scanner 100 may include a visual feedback unit 121 that is part of the feedback unit 120 for providing visual feedback. In FIG. 1, the visual feedback unit 121 includes four 1 / 4 ring light regions 1211, 1212, 1213, 1214 arranged to form a ring that can be understood to represent four 1 / 4 sections of the dental arch. By illuminating the light regions 1211, 1212, 1213, 1214 with light of different colors and / or light having different intensity characteristics, user-perceivable feedback can be provided, for example, live during the scanning procedure, and as a result, the user can understand the progress of the scanning procedure in a discrete position or location-resolved manner. Additionally or alternatively, the four light regions 1211, 1212, 1213, 1214 may be used to indicate the severity of oral health conditions during or at the end of the scanning procedure in a discrete position or location-resolved manner, for example, by illuminating each light region with a specific color and / or by applying an intensity variation pattern. These are merely examples, and instead of four light regions, the oral scanner 100 may include two, three, five, six, sixteen, or thirty-two, etc. The light regions and / or the oral scanner system 1 may include a display for more versatile visualization of user-perceivable feedback, for example, displaying values such as percentages for each segment. See the previous paragraph regarding visualization of feedback.The oral scanner 100 may additionally or alternatively include one or several other feedback elements 122, which are part of the feedback unit 120, such as a light ring at the bottom of the oral scanner 100, to convey that the oral scanner 100 is switched on, or that the energy storage device needs charging, etc. One or several tactile or haptic feedback elements, and / or one or several audible feedback elements. Generally, the processor 200 may be coupled or connected to a memory for storing oral health sensor data and / or oral health data and / or scan progress data and / or state classification data and / or oral care activity data, and this stored data may be stored in a position-resolved or location-resolved manner, specifically, current and historical memory data may exist, where "history" relates to previous scan procedures or oral care activities. The oral care activity data relates to the oral care activity procedures performed using the oral care device, and the data is transmitted to the processor. All aspects described with respect to this embodiment shown in FIG. 1 are further to be understood as provided for all other embodiments in the present disclosure, without repetition of the same text, to the extent that the individual aspects are not inconsistent with other embodiments.

[0074] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of another exemplary oral scanner system 1A according to the present disclosure. The oral scanner system 1A here includes, for example, an exemplary oral scanner 100A and an exemplary separate device 300A including a processor 200A and a display 310A as part of a feedback unit for visualizing user-perceivable feedback (see the previous paragraph providing details regarding visualization and FIGS. 5-7 for further reference to the following disclosure). The oral scanner 100A may include a scanner communicator 140A, and the separate device 300A may include a separate device communicator 340A. As a result, the oral scanner 100A and the separate device 300A can communicate wirelessly, for example, via a Bluetooth protocol or an IEEE 820.11 protocol, that is, exchange signals for delivering data. The possibility of wireless communication is here, and also in the following figures, indicated by an icon including a small circle and three concentric circular segments, as a common standard for indicating Wi-Fi connectivity. This does not exclude permanent or temporary additional or alternative wired direct or indirect connections for signal exchange or communication via further devices, such as a charger or a router or a cloud computing device. The separate device 300A is schematically shown here as a mobile phone, but should not be understood as limiting. Refer to the possibility of realizing the separate device described in the previous paragraph. In FIG. 2, an oral health sensor 110A is shown to be provided within or on the oral scanner 100A for acquiring oral health sensor data in the head section 102A of the oral scanner 100A. As shown, the oral health sensor 110A may include a sensor receiver 111A, for example, an optical sensor such as a camera, and a sensor emitter 112A such as an optical emitter. A preferably removable attachment 105A is here attached to the head portion 102A, which may preferably be realized as a distance attachment. Refer to the previous paragraph regarding the attachment of the oral scanner.Instead of the sensor emitter 112A being disposed directly on the head portion 102A, the head portion 102A may include an outlet that communicates with the sensor emitter 112A such that the emitted medium can exit the head portion 102A at the intended location and the sensor emitter 112A itself can be disposed elsewhere within the oral scanner 100A. Similarly, an inlet may be provided on the head portion 102A that communicates with the sensor receiver 111A such that the medium to be measured can enter the head portion 102A at the intended location and the sensor receiver 111A can be disposed at some other location within the oral scanner 100A.

[0075] Regardless of whether the feedback unit is provided at least in part on the oral scanner and / or a separate device, the intent of the feedback described herein is for the user to respond to the feedback and thus enable optimization of the use of the oral scanner system. Here, the use of the oral scanner system focuses on the one hand on the use of the oral scanner system during a single scan procedure and on the other hand on the long-term use of the oral scanner system over various instances of procedures carried out using the components of the oral scanner system (e.g., including the oral scanner and optionally an oral care device for providing oral care activities).

[0076] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary oral scanner system 1B according to the present disclosure. The oral scanner system 1B includes an oral scanner 100B, a separate device 300B having a display 310B as part of a feedback unit and a processor 200B, and position sensors 400B, 410B each having first and second position sensors 400B and 410B. The oral scanner 100B is configured and / or arranged to utilize position sensor data output by the position sensors 400B, 410B to determine whether the oral scanner 100B is currently executing a scan procedure or a discrete position or location within the oral cavity 500B where a scan procedure is being executed at a given time. The time may be derivable from time values output by the position sensors 400B, 410B together with the associated position sensor data, or a clock may be used for absolute time values. As described above, the position sensors 400B, 410B in this example include two position sensors, one disposed within or on the oral scanner 100B and one separate from the oral scanner 100B.

[0077] The oral cavity 500B shown in FIG. 3, while not desired to be complete, includes a dental arch 510B, gums 520B, tongue 530B, uvula 540B, lips 550B, inner cheeks 560B, and palate 570B. Although all other regions within the oral cavity 500B can be similarly considered, for simplicity, only the dental arch 510B will be further discussed. In this exemplary description, the dental arch 510B is virtually separated into four 1 / 4 sections 511B, 512B, 513B, 514B that are considered different segments within the oral cavity 500B where the oral scanner 100B can perform a scanning procedure. The segments defined within the oral cavity 500B need not cover the entire dental arch 510B and may cover only a portion of the dental arch 510B, which is to be understood as the portion of the oral cavity intended to be scanned. The first position sensor 400B is here disposed on or within the oral scanner 100B and may be implemented as an accelerometer and / or gyroscope and / or magnetometer (generally, as an IMU). The position sensor data and the oral health sensor data may be wirelessly transmitted and received to and from the processor 200B via the processor communicator as already described, and the processor 200B is configured and / or arranged to determine a segment from a list of segments to be scanned, i.e., the discrete position or location where the oral scanner 100B is currently performing a scanning procedure based on the position sensor data, or where the oral scanner 100B was performing a scanning procedure at a given time based on position sensor data that may include timer data. In this embodiment, the processor 200B may output one of the four dental arch 1 / 4 sections 511B, 512B, 513B, 514B as the scan segment, i.e., as the discrete position or location currently being scanned. The processor 200B may also be preferably configured and / or arranged to output that no scan is currently being performed at any of the defined discrete positions or locations.For example, when the oral scanner 100B is moved outside the oral cavity 500B or across the tongue 530B, the processor may output that it does not occur at any of the discrete positions or locations where the scan procedure was used, or the processor 200B may explicitly indicate that it is outside the discrete position or location where the oral scanner 200B was used. The processor 200B may be further configured and / or arranged to calculate oral health data from the oral health sensor data by assigning, in a position-resolved or location-resolved, i.e., segment-resolved, manner, i.e., the oral health sensor data and / or the oral health data derived therefrom, to determined discrete positions or locations (or segments). See the previous paragraph for details of the determination of the discrete positions or locations and how the oral health data is assigned to the discrete positions or locations. In some embodiments, the processor 200B determines the orientation of the oral scanner 100B with respect to the earth's gravitational field and determines the discrete position or location (or segment) by sorting the orientation values into predetermined discrete position or location (or segment) buckets, as is known in the art.

[0078] Additionally or alternatively, a second position sensor 410B may be utilized, which in this embodiment is a separate camera that takes an image from outside or inside the oral cavity 500B, and the image is understood to be position sensor data delivered by the camera 410B. Based on only the photograph and / or based on data fusion with the position sensor data from the first position sensor 400B, discrete positions or locations (or segments) within the oral cavity 500B may be determined by the processor 200B, where the discrete position or location is related to one of the shown dental arches 1 / 4 sections 511B, 512B, 513B, 514B. The fact that an external camera is shown here does not exclude the alternative or additional use of a camera as a position sensor disposed on the head portion or the handle portion of the oral scanner 100B so as to be able to assist in determining discrete positions or locations (or segments) by taking an image from inside the oral cavity 500B or an image from the user's face, respectively. According to some aspects throughout this specification, a camera that functions as an oral health sensor may be further utilized as a position sensor. See, for example, European Patent No. 2189198 (B1) of the previous paragraph. A scanning procedure performed using an oral health sensor equipped with an optical sensor such as a camera is called an optical scanning procedure.

[0079] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary oral scanner system 1C according to the present disclosure that specifically includes an oral care device 700C, although some aspects of the oral scanner system 1C are independent of the presence of the oral care device 700C. The oral scanner system 1C may include or interact with an oral scanner 100C, a separate device 300C having a display 310C, the aforementioned oral care device 700C, exemplified herein as an electric toothbrush, a charger 710C, a base station 720C having a display 721C and a charger 722C, a router 730C, a computer 740C, and a cloud server or cloud computing device 750C. The various components of the oral care system 1C may preferably all be configured and / or arranged for wireless communication, as indicated by the aforementioned icons. It should be understood that the components shown here of the oral scanner system 1C are an optional assembly. For example, the oral scanner system 1C may include only one charger, or may not include a charger at all, or may actually include two chargers, one for the oral scanner 100C and one for the oral care device 700C, and potentially an additional charger for the separate device 300C. As already explained in the previous paragraph, the processor of the oral scanner system 1C may be implemented as a distributed processor, with a first processor subunit disposed within the oral scanner 100C, a second processor subunit provided by the cloud computing device 750C, or a first processor subunit provided by the separate device 300C and a second processor subunit provided by the computer 740C.How the oral care device 700C can be incorporated into the oral scanner system 1C, and that at least one operating setting of the oral care device 700C can be selected based on control data determined by a processor, and / or that the oral care device 700C can be configured and / or arranged to send to the processor oral care activity data regarding at least one oral care activity performed using the oral care device 700C, where it can be used to adapt the next scan procedure, is referred to the previous description. Data from one component may be sent directly to another component, for example from the oral care device 700C to the oral scanner 100C, or indirectly, for example from the oral care device 700C to the cloud server 750C, where it may be stored in memory and then sent to the processor, for example on demand, from the cloud server 750C, and the processor may be located within or in the oral scanner 100C or in a separate device 300C and / or in the oral scanner 100C. The memory referred to may be the memory located in any of the components referred to, or may be a distributed memory.

[0080] FIG. 5 is a depiction of an exemplary feedback screen 600D that can be visualized on a display of an oral scanner system. The term feedback screen, as used herein, refers to the visualization of feedback to a user by a display that uses specific feedback concepts within the continuous guidance provided to the user by the oral scanner system. The feedback screen is preferably used to assist a user in performing tasks of using the oral scanner system by a continuous or guided human and device interaction process, and does not exclude visualizing information such as the current time on the feedback screen. It should be understood that the individual aspects of the feedback screen shown herein are not necessarily disclosed together, and different feedback screen aspects may be assembled in any manner, and the examples provided in the figures are merely exemplary. In FIG. 5, the feedback screen 600D includes a first portion 610D and a second portion 620D. The first portion shows a live or saved image 611D from a camera on the head portion of the oral scanner of the oral scanner system. The camera may be included in an oral health sensor. The live image can include unprocessed or processed image data related to the oral health condition, such as plaque image data that appears as red fluorescence. The processor may be configured and / or arranged to analyze the image data, and may determine a boundary line within the image or image portion where the relevant oral health sensor data is located, and each display 612D may be overlaid on the live image 611D and visualized in the same manner as the portion of the live or saved image. The display 612D is shown in FIG. 5, and this display is overlaid on the visualized image data 611D and is intended to provide a visible reference for the area of the tooth that can be seen on the image covered by plaque. Here, the display 612D is derived from the camera data, specifically from the camera data that images fluorescence, and it is stated that the display 612D indicates the area where a scanned oral health problem such as plaque has been found on the currently scanned tooth (live image) or on the saved image (e.g., to show the tooth with the most severe problem).Display 612D is the result of processing optical oral health data captured by a camera, but the display 612D itself has no meaning unless it is overlaid on an image of each respective part of the oral cavity to which it pertains. Only further processing, such as calculating a normalized area of dental plaque for the total tooth area within a given segment (discrete position or location), enables a single value that is easily understandable for each segment to be presented to the user.

[0081] In the illustrated example, the second portion 620D of the feedback screen 600D includes an abstract visualization of a human dentition 621D. In the example shown, the abstract visualization of the human dentition 621D generally comprises six segments (reflecting scanned segments or discrete positions / places) 622D, 623D, 624D, 625D, 626D, and 627D arranged at a distance between two adjacent segments in an oval-like configuration. Each of the segments 622D, 623D, 624D, 625D, 626D, and 627D includes a plurality of overlapping circles or bubbles and is understood to be a non-limiting example of a visualization possibility. The upper three segments 622D, 623D, 624D indicate the upper teeth, and the lower three segments 625D, 626D, 627D indicate the lower teeth. The upper segment 623D and the lower segment 626D are each taken to represent the positions in the dentition relating to the upper and lower front teeth, respectively, and the left segments 622D and 627D are each taken to represent the positions in the dentition relating to the upper and lower left molars, respectively, and the right segments 624D and 625D are each taken to represent the positions in the dentition relating to the upper and lower right molars, respectively. Referring to segment 622D (and also with respect to segment 625E of FIG. 6 as a further example), it is shown that the abstract segment shown can be visually separated into two or three or more subdivisions (segments) that may relate to different discrete positions or places in the dentition. These subdivisions may be used, for example, to visually distinguish different teeth or groups of teeth related to a higher-order segment, or different tooth surfaces or groups of tooth surfaces related to a higher-order segment. Segment 622D (and segment 625E of FIG. 6) is separated into three regions 6221D, 6222D, 6223D, and the side regions 6221D and 6223D each represent the buccal and lingual surfaces of the molars of segment 622D, respectively, and the central region 6222D represents the occlusal or occluding surface of the molars of segment 622D. Such a portion of the feedback screen may be used to provide live or summary feedback to the user, either as just a part of the overall feedback screen or as essentially the only part of the feedback screen. FIG. 5 shows a feedback screen that a user can view during a live scan procedure.Segments 622D, 623D, 624D, 625D, 626D, and 627D may be used to indicate the progress of a positional or locational decomposition scan procedure and / or the severity of an oral health condition, e.g., the total or normalized area of teeth within a segment where dental plaque, etc. has been determined. Again, note that the segments or subdivisions of segments shown on the feedback screen relate to discrete positions or locations within the oral cavity. As already explained in the previous paragraph, the progress of the scan procedure is first shown for all segments and all segment subdivisions with a base or starting color (e.g., dark blue) or starting pattern, etc., then the color or pattern, etc. is gradually or stepwise changed towards a different color or pattern, e.g., bright blue, and finally towards white, to visualize the progress of the scan procedure for each segment, i.e., for each discrete position or location. It may be preferable to have three or more colors or patterns used for each segment or subdivision of the pattern to indicate the level of scan procedure progress or the severity of the oral health condition, although the use of only two colors or patterns, etc. is not excluded. In FIG. 5, different intensities of shading are used instead of colors. The severity of the detected oral health condition is determined based on discretely positionally or locationally decomposed oral health (sensor) data and may be visualized by adding patterns of different intensities as colors. In FIG. 5, additional dots are used to indicate the severity of the oral health condition.

[0082] FIG. 6 is a depiction of an exemplary feedback screen 600E that can be visualized on a display of an oral scanner system. The feedback screen 600E includes an abstract visualization of an essentially identical dentition 621E as described with respect to FIG. 5, with each description being incorporated by reference. Abstract segments 622E, 623E, 624E, 625E, 626E, and 627E are shown. The feedback screen 600E can be understood as a summary screen in which the detected oral health state, e.g., the severity of dental plaque, is shown in a discretized position or location resolved manner by different colors or patterns (in FIG. 6, different intensities of shading are used). In this embodiment, the basic feedback concept described with respect to FIG. 5 is used to show the live status of the oral health state in each of the segments, or the final status of the oral health state at the end of the scan procedure, instead of the live or final scan progression described with respect to FIG. 5. Additional patterns or structures may be applied to indicate additional feedback, e.g., the presence of another oral health state such as tartar (i.e., old dental plaque), and the intensity of the pattern or the number of additional structures may indicate the severity of the additional oral health state. Additional dots are shown in FIG. 6. Further, the feedback screen 600E includes a visualization of the temporal change with respect to at least one oral health state, e.g., the severity of dental plaque. Such visualized feedback can show, in an appropriate manner, the severity of the oral health state determined in a recent scan procedure and a change indicator for the change in severity compared to at least one previous scan procedure. The bar indicator with a temporal change arrow shown in FIG. 6 is merely an example of such a visualization of comparison data, i.e., comparison data regarding the comparison of current data with stored historical data. The bar indicator shown includes a bar indicating the oral health state, where the bottom is associated with no problem and the top is associated with a concerning state, and a first number, here 75, indicates a normalized oral health state assessment (normalization may be related to a range between 0 and 100 here), and a second number, here 8, indicates the temporal change relative to the previous, i.e., the historical scan procedure.The reference guide 630E can be visualized to map colors or symbols or patterns, etc. to the severity of the oral health condition, and the severity shown in the reference guide 630E may coincide with the state classes into which the oral health data is classified. In the example shown, three state classes, namely "low", "medium", and "high" are used. In this example, information regarding comparison with historical data is shown as a comprehensive indicator for the entire scanned part of the oral cavity. In contrast, it can be imagined that a feedback screen can be shown, where the temporal changes are shown in a segmented manner, for example, as the color of each segment, and / or the assigned values can be used to indicate better or worse temporal changes for each segment, i.e., for each discrete position or location.

[0083] FIG. 7 is a diagram of an exemplary separate device 300F comprising a display 310F on which an exemplary feedback screen 600F is visualized, which is part of an oral scanner system. Again, an abstract visualization 621F of the dentition is utilized as in FIGS. 5 and 6. In addition to segments of the dentition, locations where an oral health condition of a particular severity has been detected (i.e., locations where the analysis of the oral health sensor data has resulted in an oral health condition exceeding a threshold), for example, locations where gum inflammation has been detected based on the analysis of image data such as that created by a camera acting as a sensor receiver of an oral health sensor, a position 640F regarding segments of the gums is shown. The feedback screen 600F provides an example of a visualization for providing feedback regarding various oral health conditions classified into different state classes. The reference guide 630F can be visualized to map colors or symbols or patterns, etc. to the type of oral health condition and its classification. The visualized marks 640F, 641F may be overlaid on the abstract visualization 621F of the dentition to provide feedback regarding further oral health conditions, such as cavities, etc. The size of such a mark 641F may be related to the severity and thus to the state class. As shown in FIG. 7, the individual discrete positions or locations may be shown in an even more decomposed manner, for example, at the level of individual teeth.

[0084] The dimensions and values disclosed in this specification should not be understood as being strictly limited to the exact numerical values recited. Instead, unless otherwise indicated, each such dimension is intended to mean both the recited value and a functionally equivalent range surrounding that value. For example, a dimension disclosed as "40 mm" is intended to mean "about 40 mm".

Claims

1. An oral scanner system, wherein the oral scanner system comprises: An oral scanner configured and / or arranged to perform a scanning procedure of at least a part of the oral cavity of a subject; A position detector configured and / or arranged to output position sensor data regarding a discrete position or location where the oral scanner is currently performing the scanning procedure; A processor, Receiving at least the position sensor data, Processing the position sensor data to determine a scanning discrete position or location within the at least part of the oral cavity where the oral scanner is currently performing the scanning procedure, Based at least on the determined scanning position or location where the oral scanner is currently performing the scanning procedure, for each of at least two discrete positions or locations, configured and / or arranged to calculate a scanning procedure progress value within a range between a start progress value and an end progress value; Preferably, a feedback unit configured and / or arranged to provide feedback regarding the progress of the scanning procedure for each of the at least two discrete positions or locations during the scanning procedure, preferably as live or real-time feedback, by presenting the calculated scanning procedure progress value as a single numerical value such as a percentage for each of the at least two discrete positions or locations; An oral scanner system comprising the above.

2. The position sensor includes at least one from a list including an accelerometer and a gyroscope. Preferably, the accelerometer or the gyroscope is realized as a MEMS sensor. The oral scanner system according to Claim 1.

3. The oral scanner of the oral scanner system according to Claim 1 or 2, comprising an oral health sensor configured and / or arranged to acquire and output oral health sensor data from at least a part of the oral cavity during the scanning procedure.

4. The oral health sensor of the oral scanner system according to Claim 3, comprising an optical sensor, preferably an M×N array of optoelectronic sensor elements.

5. The oral scanner system according to Claim 4, wherein the optical sensor is a camera.

6. The oral scanner system according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein the processor is configured and / or arranged to determine oral health data related to at least one oral health condition from the oral health sensor data.

7. The processor is configured to process the oral health sensor data to determine oral health data related to the at least one oral health condition, classify the oral health data with respect to at least two state classes related to the at least one oral health condition, and determine one state class from the at least two state classes to which the oral health data belongs, or is configured and / or arranged to classify the oral health sensor data with respect to the at least two state classes related to the at least one oral health condition and determine one state class to which the oral health sensor data belongs from the at least two state classes, of the oral scanner system according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

8. The feedback unit includes at least one visual feedback element for each of the at least two discrete positions or locations, and the feedback unit is configured and arranged to visually indicate the progress of the scanning procedure for the at least two discrete positions or locations via the at least two visual feedback elements. Preferably, the feedback unit includes a display unit that realizes the at least two visual feedback elements, of the oral scanner system according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

9. The feedback unit is realized as a separate device or thereby. Preferably, the separate device is a computer, notebook, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or smartwatch, of the oral scanner system according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. The processor is at least partially located in or on the separate device, of the oral scanner system according to claim 9.

11. The oral scanner comprises a scanner communicator, the separate device comprises a separate device communicator, and the processor and the separate device communicator are configured and / or arranged for wireless communication, the oral scanner system according to any one of claims 9 or 10.

12. The feedback unit is configured and arranged to visualize a general depiction of the at least part of the oral cavity, preferably including at least a general visualization of the dentition, and the scan procedure progress values for the at least two discrete positions or locations are additionally visualized, preferably the visualization of the scan procedure progress values is overlaid on the depiction of the dentition or the depiction of the dentition is corrected based on the scan procedure progress values, the oral scanner system according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

13. The processor is configured and / or arranged to stop the scan procedure if the scan procedure progress value for each of the at least two discrete positions or locations exceeds a predetermined threshold value, preferably the threshold value is different for at least two of the at least two different discrete positions or locations, the oral scanner system according to any one of claims 1 to 12.

14. The processor is configured and / or arranged to determine the scan procedure progress value for each of the at least two discrete positions or locations according to at least one from the list, the list including the duration of the scan procedure at each of the respective discrete positions or locations, the quality of movement such as length, speed, acceleration or direction derived from the position sensor data at each of the respective discrete positions or locations, the number of oral health sensor data collections of preferably non-overlapping or only partially overlapping content at each of the respective discrete positions or locations, preferably camera image data collection, the number of sub-positions or sub-locations determined based on the position sensor data at each of the respective discrete positions or locations, or the quality assessment of the oral health sensor data at each of the respective discrete positions or locations, preferably the quality assessment of camera image data, the oral scanner system according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

Images