A Study on Parametric Shape Modifications of 3D Skeletal Models

Abstract

Parametric biomechanical models of the human body have a wide range of applications. Factors that make construction of such models difficult include the difficulty to model free form shapes, the existence of large shape variations, poor models for soft tissues, etc. An important step towards achieving a solution is to generate parametric skeletal models. In this paper, we introduce a new method to parametrically define shapes of skeleton components (bones). Our approach has several advantages: we require only a few sample bones of a class to construct a fairly robust template model; we do not rely on accurate identification of specific landmarks or shape features; finally, our algorithms are robust and efficient. The main tool we use is free form deformation (FFD), which we use to modify the shape of a template mesh by dislocating points of its affiliated lattice. This lattice is automatically derived by mesh simplification. Using the template bone and the values of a few parameters, an FFD based transfor...