1. An apparatus comprising:
an array of optical elements to generate a distribution of partial coherence of light energy, said array being planar; and
a first aperture to select a subset of said optical elements, said first aperture comprising articulated edges to change shape and size of said first aperture wherein a separation between said articulated edges may be varied to adjust dose.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said distribution varies continuously within said array.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said array comprises a diffractive grating that is not periodic.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said array further comprises optical elements that generate elliptical illumination.
5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said optical elements are primarily refractive.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said optical elements comprise lenslets.
7. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said optical elements are primarily diffractive.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said first aperture has said articulated edges to selectively obscure or occlude some of said optical elements.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said array is periodic in a first direction and a second dimension.
10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said array has a first dimension and a second dimension, said first dimension and said second dimension being orthogonal to each other.
11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said first dimension corresponds to a direction along the scan while said second dimension corresponds to a direction along the slit in a step-and-scan type of imaging tool.
12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said partial coherence varies in said first dimension of said array, but remains constant in said second dimension of said array.
13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said subset compensates for optical aberrations or nonuniformity in the partial coherence in the illumination.
14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said subset changes horizontal-vertical bias (H-V bias).
15. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a second aperture to change cross-sectional area to adjust dose.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
What is claimed is:
1. A laser digitizer comprising:
a light source having collimating optics configured to generate a collimated beam of light;
a scanner optically coupled to the light source and configured to scan the collimated beam along at least two axes towards an object to be imaged;
an image capture instrument having an optical axis at an angle with respect to the scanner and configured to detect a reflection of the scanned beam from the object and to generate data representative of a surface of the object based on the reflected beam;
a processor coupled to the scanner and the image capture system configured to generate a three-dimensional image of the object based on the data.
2. The laser digitizer of claim 1 where the light source comprises a laser LED.
3. The laser digitizer of claim 1 further comprising a flat-field scan lens having an optical axis and configured to focus the scanned beam of light to a point on the object to be imaged.
4. The laser digitizer of claim 3 where the image capture instrument comprises:
an image sensor configured to detect a triangulation image of the object, the triangulation image based on a plurality of curves generated by scanning the beam of light on the object during an exposure period; and
a telecentric lens configured to focus the plurality of curves on the image sensor.
5. The laser digitizer of claim 4 further comprising an object positioning system configured to position the object within a field of projection of the scanner.
6. The laser digitizer of claim 5 where the object positioning system is configured to move the object to various positions and angles with respect to a field of view of the image sensor instrument and the scanner.
7. The laser digitizer of claim 6 where the processor is programmed to merge multiple images of the object to create a three-dimensional map of the object.
8. The laser digitizer of claim 8 where the object comprises any one of a dental model, a dental mold, or a dental casting.
9. The laser digitizer of claim 1 where the scanner comprises multiple mirrors, where each mirror is positioned substantially orthogonally with respect each other.
10. The laser digitizer of claim 1 where the scanner comprises a rotatable mirror and a spinning polygon mirror.
11. The laser digitizer of claim 1 where the scanner further comprises a programmable position controller configured to control the scan of the collimated laser beam to a programmed scan sequence.
12. The laser digitizer of claim 1 where the known pattern comprises a plurality of curves where each of the plurality of curves is substantially parallel to each other.
13. A dental imaging system, comprising:
means for generating a collimated laser beam of light;
scanner means for generating a multi-axis collimated light beam;
beam focusing means for focusing the collimated light beam to a point on an object to be images;
image capturing means for detecting reflections of the a focused beam projected on an object; and
processor means coupled to the scanner means and the image capturing means for generating a three-dimensional image of the object.
14. The laser digitizer of claim 12 where the scanning means scans the dot across the surface of the object via the focusing means in a selected pattern.
15. The laser digitizer of claim 12 where the image capturing means comprises:
an image sensor configured to detect a triangulation image of the object, where the triangulation image is based on a pattern of scanned lasers dots across the surface of the object during an exposure period; and
an imaging lens.
16. The laser digitizer of claim 14 further comprising object positioning means configured to position the object within a field of projection of the scanner.
17. A method that generates a three-dimensional visual image of a physical object comprising:
generating a multi-axis collimated beam of light;
positioning the object in a first position;
scanning the multi-axis collimated beam of light in a predetermined pattern, where the pattern includes a plurality of substantially parallel curves;
focusing the scanned collimated beam of light on the physical object;
capturing an image of the focused collimated beam of light on the object during an exposure period; and
determining a map of the surface of the object based on the captured image.
18. The method of claim 17 where the act of scanning comprises scanning the beam of light in a direction substantially perpendicular to the optical axis of the lens.
19. The method of claim 17 further comprising the acts of:
re-positioning the object to a second orientation;
capturing an image of the focused beam on the object positioned in the second position; and
merging the image of the focused beam on the object positioned in the first position with the image of the focused beam on the object in the second position.
20. The method of claim 17 where the plurality of curves each comprise a plurality of curvilinear segments.