Patent ID: 7239992

Claim:
An apparatus for simulating a deformation of soft body tissues, comprising: a memory configured to store, for at least one object having a three-dimensional shape: mechanical parameters of the material of the object, data as to a position of the object recorded at a vertice of at least one selected mesh, and force data which represent, in intensity and position, stress to be exerted on the object, and a computer operatively connected to the memory to evaluate new positions of the vertices, as a function of the stress exerted and the mechanical parameters of the material, wherein the computer comprises: a first module ( 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 ) configured to determine repeatedly, for each mesh, a deviation between a current length of an edge of the mesh and its previous length and/or its length at rest, and to store respective force data relating to a potential energy of deformation for each vertex of the mesh, the respective force data being obtained from said deviation, and a second module ( 30 , 32 , 36 ) configured to determine repeatedly, for each vertex, new data as to the position of the vertex as a function of composition of forces exerted thereon, data relating to at least one previous position of the vertex and mechanical parameters of the material.