Human shoulder modeling including scapulo-thoracic constraint and joint sinus cones

In virtual human modeling, the shoulder is usually composed of clavicular, scapular and arm segments related by rotational joints. Although the model is improved, the realistic animation of the shoulder is hardly achieved. Th is is due to the fact that it is difficult to coordinate the simultaneous m otion of the shoulder components in a consistent way. Also, the common use of independent one-degree of freedom (DOF) joint hierarchies does not prope rly render the 3-D accessibility space of real joints. On the basis of form er biomechanical investigations, we propose here an extended shoulder model including scapulo-thoracic constraint and joint sinus cones. As a demonstr ation, the model is applied, using inverse kinematics, to the animation of a 3-D anatomic muscled skeleton model. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.