filename     : p_Bie99
title        : Interactive Cuts through 3-Dimensional Soft Tissue
entry        : inproceedings
pages        : 9
year         : 1999
author       : Daniel Bielser, Volker A. Maiwald and Markus H. Gross
language     : English
month        : September
address      : Institute of Scientific Computing
keywords     : Physically Based Modeling, Surgery Simulation, Soft Tissue, Tetrahedralization, Interactive Cut, Virtual Scalpel, Runge Kutta Method
institution  : ETH Zürich
abstract     :
We describe a physically based framework for interactive modeling and
cutting of 3-dimensional soft tissue that can be used for surgery
simulation. Unlike existing approaches which are mostly designed for
tensorproduct grids our methods operate on tetrahedral decompositions
giving more topological and geometric flexibility for the efficient
modeling of complex anatomical structures. We start from an initial
tetrahedralization such as being provided by any conventional meshing
method. In order to track topological changes tetrahedra intersected by
the virtual scalpel are split into substructures whose connectivity
follows the trajectory of the cut, which can be arbitrary. For the
efficient computation of collisions between the scalpel and individual
tetrahedra we devised a local collision detection algorithm. The
underlying physics is approximated through masses and springs attached
to each tetrahedral vertex and edge. A hierarchical Runge-Kutta
iteration computes the relaxation of the system by traversing the
designed data structures in a breadth-first order. The framework
includes a force-feedback interface and uses real-time texture mapping
to enhance the visual realism.