Pectus Excavatum postsurgical outcome based on preoperative soft body dynamics simulation

Pectus excavatum is the most common congenital deformity of the anterior chest wall, in which an abnormal formation of the rib cage gives the chest a caved-in or sunken appearance. Today, the surgical correction of this deformity is carried out in children and adults through Nuss technic, which consists in the placement of a prosthetic bar under the sternum and over the ribs. Although this technique has been shown to be safe and reliable, not all patients have achieved adequate cosmetic outcome. This often leads to psychological problems and social stress, before and after the surgical correction. This paper targets this particular problem by presenting a method to predict the patient surgical outcome based on pre-surgical imagiologic information and chest skin dynamic modulation. The proposed approach uses the patient pre-surgical thoracic CT scan and anatomical-surgical references to perform a 3D segmentation of the left ribs, right ribs, sternum and skin. The technique encompasses three steps: a) approximation of the cartilages, between the ribs and the sternum, trough b-spline interpolation; b) a volumetric mass spring model that connects two layers - inner skin layer based on the outer pleura contour and the outer surface skin; and c) displacement of the sternum according to the prosthetic bar position. A dynamic model of the skin around the chest wall region was generated, capable of simulating the effect of the movement of the prosthetic bar along the sternum. The results were compared and validated with patient postsurgical skin surface acquired with Polhemus FastSCAN system

Palco: a multisensor realtime 3D cartoon production system

This paper presents Palco, a prototype system specifically designed for the production of 3D cartoon animations. The system addresses the specific problems of producing cartoon animations, where the main obj ective is not to reproduce realistic movements, but rather animate cartoon characters with predefined and characteristic body movements and facial expressions. The techniques employed in Palco are simple and easy to use, not requiring any invasive or complicated motion capture system, as both body motion and facial expression of actors are captured simultaneously, using an infrared motion detection sensor, a regular camera and a pair of electronically instrumented gloves. The animation process is completely actor-driven, with the actor controlling the character movements, gestures, facial expression and voice, all in realtime. The actor controlled cartoonification of the captured facial and body motion is a key functionality of Palco, and one that makes it specifically suited for the production of cartoon animations.