Real-time visio-haptic interaction with static soft tissue models having geometric and material nonlinearity

Realistic soft tissue models running in real-time are required for the development of computer-based surgical training systems. To construct a realistic soft tissue model, finite element (FE) modeling techniques are preferred over the particle-based techniques since the material properties can be integrated directly into the FE model to provide more accurate visual and haptic feedback to a user during the simulations. However, running even a static (time-independent) nonlinear FE model in real-time is a highly challenging task because the resulting stiffness matrix (K) is not constant and varies with the depth of penetration into the model.