title: A meshless numerical technique for physically based real time medical simulations.
abstract: This work introduces, for the first time, a meshless modeling technique, the method of finite spheres, for physically based, real time rendering of soft tissues in medical simulations. The technique is conceptually similar to the traditional finite element techniques. However, while the finite element techniques requires a slow mesh generation process, this new technique has significant potential for multimodal medical simulations of the future since it does not use a mesh. Several examples are presented showing the effectiveness of the scheme.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Human and Machine Haptics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
mesh_terms: D003196:Computer Graphics; D003198:Computer Simulation; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008099:Liver / Q000601:surgery; D013525:Surgical Instruments; D014584:User-Computer Interface