Geometry-driven physical interaction between avatars and virtual environments

We present an interactive technique on virtual contact handling for avatars in virtual environments using geometry-driven physics. If a contact has occurred between an articulated avatar and a virtual environment, the global penetration depth and contact points are estimated based on a fast local penetration depth computation for decomposed convex pieces. The penetration depth and contact information are then used to resolve overlap between the avatar and the virtual environment. If applicable, joint angles for an articulated body are computed using an inverse kinematics approach based on cyclic coordinate descent. Resulting dynamic response with friction is modeled with impulsebased dynamics under the Coulomb friction law. We demonstrate the algorithm on a modestly complex virtual environment. The resulting system is able to maintain an interactive frame rate of 30-60 Hz.