Cameron BM, Robb RA. An axial skeleton based surface deformation algorithm for patient specific anatomic modeling. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2000;70:53-8

PMID: 10977583

Abstract

Traditionally, finite element analysis or mass-spring systems are used to calculate deformations of geometric surfaces. Patient-specific geometric models can be comprised of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of polygons, making finite element analysis and mass-spring systems computationally demanding. Simulations using deformable patient specific models at real time rates are prohibitive under such a computational burden. This paper presents a method for simulating deformable surfaces by deforming a skeletal representation of the surface, rather than the surface itself, yielding an efficient method for interactive simulation with models.