关键词: 虚拟建模, 舌部肌肉建模, 发音运动, 谷形控制, 悬链线函数

Abstract: The human tongue structure is complex, and its movement is flexible. It plays a key role in the process of pronunciation and expression of movement in virtual characters. But the structures of the existing tongue models are sole, and the virtual movements are relatively simple. Besides, those models are lack of describing ability, and require a lot of data-driven. To solve these above problems, through the study of anatomical structure of the tongue, a tongue muscle model is put forward which is based on the characteristics of muscle movements. According to the motions and pronunciation function, the tongue muscles groups, including the inside and outside muscles, are divided into some categories. It only gets the different shrinkages about those muscles, and takes advantage of each control function to determine the parameter values. Thus, variety of common movements can be achieved, such as front rise, back rise and valley-shaped. The experimental results show that this method can be more flexible and convenient to control a virtual tongue, and simulate a variety of physiological characteristics movements of the tongue.

Key words: virtual modeling, tongue muscles modeling, pronunciation movements, valley-shaped control, catenary function