Nonrigid motion analysis using nonlinear finite element modeling

In this paper, we consider the problem of tracking elastic objects with known material properties. That corresponds to utilization of specific a priori knowledge in nonrigid motion analysis. We propose the utilization of nonlinear finite element methods (FEM) for point correspondence recovery. We deal with range data, i.e., assume that surface points before and after motion are available from the sensing system. Nonlinear FEM not only allows for modeling of nonlinear material properties but also for large deformation between consecutive time frames (which are main limitations of widely utilized linear FEM). We propose a new algorithm for the point correspondence recovery in nonrigid motion using assumptions of known material properties and single (but not known) force applied to the object. Simulations and experimental results demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.