Cresco Corporation, a pioneering company in the realm of technological innovation, has made a significant breakthrough in dental diagnostics and treatment planning. On November 14, 2023, they acquired a patent for a remarkable invention - an information processing device, method, and program that can identify individual teeth from panoramic dental X-ray images. This innovation promises to significantly reduce the workload involved in dental charting and enhance the quality of patient treatment explanations.
Research Background
Cresco's Technical Research Institute has been working since 2016, in collaboration with medical institutions, to enhance Quality of Life (QoL) through medical diagnostics support, preventive medicine, and health management assistance using AI. Teeth, with their unique shapes and arrangements, are complex to identify individually on dental charts and panoramic X-ray images. This complexity often leads to time-consuming diagnostic processes. To address this, Cresco began research in 2018 to automate tooth identification using AI, and to improve charting efficiency and patient communication by isolating and illustrating individual teeth.
Patent Overview and Identification Process
Marking: The AI model, trained to apply color-coded marks based on tooth position (upper, lower, left, right), marks teeth on panoramic X-ray images. This initial marking step enhances the precision of subsequent numbering and image segmentation. The color-coded marks also help easily identify the dental arch's center, which may not always be in the image's center. Additionally, the data generated in this step can be reused for training the machine learning model.
Numbering: The program numbers the marked teeth, starting from the central region of the image.
Individual Tooth Filling and Image Segmentation: For each marked tooth, the AI model, trained to convert the color-filled tooth shapes into images, can extract the shape of each tooth corresponding to its mark. This numbering process ensures each segmented tooth is correctly identified.
The potential applications of this invention extend beyond dental panoramic X-ray images to other medical imaging and various industrial sectors, such as equipment and maintenance parts verification.
Patent Information
Patent Number: 7398983
Patentee: Cresco Corporation
Title: Information Processing Device, Method, and Program
About Cresco
Founded on the principles of human-centric and merit-based values, Cresco Corporation derives its name from "growth." Since its inception, Cresco has been dedicated to contributing to society and enhancing life through cutting-edge technology. Leveraging their expertise in system development, they continue to expand their research and development in advanced technology fields, along with creating innovative products and services. More information about Cresco can be found at Cresco's official website.
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