Algorithmic aspects of the simulation and control of computer generated human anatomy models.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Computer aided simulation of the appearance and function of the human body has found compelling applications in entertainment, biomechanics and medicine. Furthermore, recreating realistic humanlike behavior with a synthetic face or body model constitutes one of the most challenging benchmarks for physics-based simulation algorithms, due to the complexity and resolution of the utilized models. As a result, the quest for visual realism and biomechanical accuracy in virtual human simulation has often inspired novel algorithms with broader impact in the field of physics-based simulation. Using realistic character animation as the underlying motivation, this thesis describes a host of new techniques that helped bring physics-based face and body models to life. These include a robust quasistatic finite element solver able to simulate meshes with over a million elements in the presence of inverted or degenerate elements, an optimization algorithm for the automatic extraction of facial muscle activations from motion captured performances, a hybrid solids simulation framework that allows the utilization of distinct representations for elastic simulation, collision handling and constraint resolution, and a flexible geometric algorithm for placing cracks and incisions on deformable structures during simulation. Geometrical and constitutive modeling of active musculature is addressed for musculoskeletal and facial simulation tasks. Finally, the usability of these algorithms and models is illustrated both in human anatomy simulation scenarios as well as in more general physics-based simulation tasks for computer graphics applications.