Confocal is a principle by which light is filtered by passing it through a small pinhole.
Only the light re-flected from the object at the proper focal distance will pass through the pinhole.
Therefore, only those rays that are in focus will return through the filtering device.
Certain intra-oral scanners expand upon this concept by simultaneously projecting 100,000 beams of parallel red light rays with each individual scan.
See: Intraoral scanner, Confocal microscopy.
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