Real-time collision detection using spherical octrees: virtual reality application

A method for detecting potential collisions between three-dimensional moving objects is described in this paper. An object-centered, spherical octree representation is defined and implemented for the localisation of potentially colliding features between polyhedral objects. These features are subsequently tested for intersection in order to calculate precisely the actual collision points. Application of the algorithm for the direct manipulation of objects in a virtual scene is considered, to investigate its real-time behaviour. The performance of the algorithm is found to remain linear with respect to the complexity of the colliding objects.