Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

A Handful of Photos Yields a Mouthful of (Digital) Teeth

December 5, 2016 By Phys.org

A Disney Research team has developed a model-based method of realistically reconstructing teeth for digital actors and for medical applications using just a few, non-invasive photos or a short smartphone video of the mouth.

This new method can digitally reconstruct teeth even though some teeth are obscured in the photos or videos by the edges of the mouth or by other teeth.

“Image-based reconstructions of the human face have grown increasingly sophisticated and digital humans have become ubiquitous in everyday life,” said Markus Gross, vice president for Disney Research. “By combining creativity and innovation, this research continues Disney’s rich legacy of leveraging technology to enhance the tools and systems used to create more realistic and believable digital actors for films or video games.”

The researchers – from Disney Research, ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics – will present the new method for teeth reconstruction at the ACM SIGGRAPH Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia, taking place in Macao Dec. 5-8.

(Credit: Disney Research)

According to Thabo Beeler, a Disney research scientist, camera-based reconstructions have been problematic as what makes pearly whites pearly also makes them hard to capture in images—their translucent enamel and the diffuse underlying dentine. It’s also difficult to get people to open their mouths wide enough to provide cameras with an unobstructed view.

“On the upside, teeth are rigid and their shape variation from person to person is manageable,” Beeler said, “and as such teeth render themselves well to statistical modeling.”

To create their method, the researchers first constructed a model of human teeth rows, using high-resolution 3D scans of 86 different teeth rows from the field of human dentistry.

From this training data, a model of an average tooth row was created and natural variations in shape and spacing were calculated for each tooth.

Though imaging teeth in great detail is technically difficult, the researchers developed a way to recognize their edges – where teeth meet each other, meet the gums and meet the lips. With these outlines, obtained from several photos from different angles of a person’s mouth in a natural pose or from video taken while moving a smartphone from side to side, the model can be fitted to the person’s teeth.

In this way, the entire tooth row – including teeth entirely blocked from view of the camera – can be reconstructed from the model.

In a final step, natural coloring of the person’s teeth can be overlaid on the teeth reconstruction, providing a realistic looking set of teeth.

“Our algorithm only requires minimal user interaction and can operate on a set of individual, non-calibrated images, making teeth capture as easy and convenient as taking a few pictures or even a short video clip from a standard mobile phone,” Beeler said.

Related Articles Read More >

Min-Vasive Medtech: Live interviews and audience Q&As with minimally invasive engineers from Edwards Lifesciences, Jupiter Endo and Compremium
This is a screenshot of the remote robotic surgery technical guidelines appearing in the World Journal of Surgery.
New technical guidelines set to advance remote robotic surgery
An illustration of Embolization Inc.'s Nitinol Enhanced Device (NED).
This nitinol vascular embolization device has another shape memory material up its sleeve
A photo of nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy used for medical devices such as stents, heart valves, catheters and orthopedics.
What is nitinol and where is it used?
“mdo
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest medical device business news, application and technology trends.

DeviceTalks Weekly

See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe