Implicit surfaces for dynamic growth of digestive system

Abstract

The embryologists found realistic human organ models and animations of development necessary for their studies. The aim of this paper is to present a methodology producing realistic animations of development. The convolution surfaces generated by skeletons used for model representation are suitable for growth animation. The skeleton of a digestive system is a line skeleton with a tree structure. Therefore, its growth in length can be simulated by an algebraic L-system which controls the growth of skeleton segments. The global deformation of the skeleton due to the gravity and the lack of space in the abdominal cavity are simulated by a dynamics of skeleton segments. The known movements are implemented in our model by external forces applied on links controlling the organ movement in space. The entire system consist of two steps: First, the actual number of skeleton segments and the length of each skeleton segment is calculated from growth functions, second, the skeleton deformation in space is updated based on dynamics.