BIOMECHANICAL MODELING - IMPLEMENTING LINE-OF-ACTION ALGORITHM FOR HUMAN MUSCLES AND BONES USING GENERALIZED CYLINDERS

Computer Animation of the human body is one of the most challenging pr oblems. In this paper, we discuss the complexity of the musculoskeleta l system for the purpose of human animation. As most of the human body parts are cylindrical in nature, a Generalized Cylinder (GC) is a log ical choice for modeling these parts. GCs are also well-suited for phy siologic cross-sectional area analysis. The shape of a GC is modeled b y a Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) surface or B-Spline curves. Using the B-Spline curves, we have implemented an algorithm to find th e line-of-action, and the volume centroid of the muscles and bones of the upper arm. Based on the line-of-action and centroid calculations, we have proposed a novel deformation algorithm which would avoid time consuming equilibrium analysis.