Support vector machines 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 modeling 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 modeling unit quaternion joint constraints using Support Vector Machines (SVMs) is proposed which attempts to address the limitations of current constraint validation approaches. Initial results show that the resulting SVMs are capable of modeling regular spherical constraints on the rotation of the limb.