Focal points and intuitive 3D controls for human kinematics visualisation

We give a brief overview of a new source of data on human anatomy and kinematics created by the EC-funded project VAKHUM. The motivation was to provide support for education at various levels through animated 3D models and finite element meshes of human joints, while making original high-quality raw data available for industrial users. We outline some identified user demands. We further describe the data types and relevant software components employed for accessing and visualising VAKHUM models. The emphasis is on a novel user interface based on focal points and intuitive 3D controls for viewing anatomy that is appropriately registered with kinematics captured by local e.g. electrogoniometry or global e.g. stereophotogrammetry means. The operating scenario for accessing models in the VAKHUM database is outlined. We close with a summary of the work and pointers to future development.