Bender 2.0
Kitware is pleased to announce the final release candidate for Bender 2.0. Bender is an open-source toolkit based on 3D Slicer that provides algorithms and a user-friendly application for repositioning voxelized anatomical models into a desired pose. It is a volumetric extension to the computer graphics concepts of rigging, skinning and posing technique to volumes.
This major version brings a new approach to posing anatomical models by using Finite Element Method (FEM). The numerical solution enabled by FEM allows the anatomy to be correctly repositioned while, for example, preserving the volume of each organ.
Another great feature in this release of Bender is the integration of motion-capture animations applied to armature rigs. The popular BVH file format is now supported to enable sharing of the pose sequences they define and to load any of the thousands of BVH pose files, if they use a compliant rigging, that are freely available on the web.
To achieve the new features found in Bender 2.0, we integrated two highly-successful open-source projects into it: Cleaver for generating multi-material tetrahedral meshes from labelmap volumes and Sofa for its extensive simulation engine and collision detection.
Resources
Wiki: http://public.kitware.com/Wiki/Bender
Binaries: http://packages.kitware.com/folder/135
Code: http://public.kitware.com/gitweb?p=Bender/Bender.git
Documentation: http://public.kitware.com/Wiki/Bender/Documentation/2.0/Modules/FEMWorkflow
Acknowledgements
The Bender development effort has been funded, in part, by the AFRL “Efficient Model Posing and Morphing Software” SBIR FA8650-13-M-6444.