ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,710,688, issued on Aug. 18, was assigned to Align Technology Inc. (San Jose, Calif.).
"Ultraminiature pattern projector" was invented by Yossef Atiya (Modiin-Maccabim-Reut, Israel), Ofer Saphier (Rechovot, Israel) and Noam Shekel (Kiryat Gat, Israel).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An apparatus for intraoral scanning comprises an elongate wand comprising a probe at a distal end of the elongate wand. The apparatus further comprises one or more structured light projectors disposed within the probe, each structured light projector comprising: (a) a housing; (b) a light source disposed within the housing and comprising: a semiconductor laser d...