Collision detection technique for virtual cardiac intervention simulation

Collision detection is a fundamental component of a virtual surgery system like cardiac intervention simulation. Collision in cardiac intervention simulations usually occurs between rigid surgical instruments and soft tissues or organs, which are often modeled as large-scaled deformable objects. A hybrid collision detection method that incorporates bounding volume hierarchy with space decomposition is proposed in the paper to speed up the detection process. Results of experiments and practical applications show that the hybrid method improves the efficiency of collision detection obviously, and can tackle the problem of collision detection in a virtual cardiac invention simulation system.