Self-organizing maps for anatomical joint constraint modelling

The accurate simulation of anatomical joint models is becoming increasingly important for both realistic animation and diagnostic medical applications. Recent models have exploited unit quaternions to eliminate singularities when modelling orientations between limbs at a joint. This has led to the development of quaternion based joint constraint validation and correction methods. In this paper a novel method for implicitly modelling unit quaternion joint constraints using Self Organizing Maps (SOMs) is proposed which attempts to address the limitations of current constraint validation and correction approaches. Initial results show that the resulting SOMs are capable of modelling regular spherical constraints on the orientation of the limb.