Layout Estimation for Layered Ink of 3D Printer to Reproduce the Desired Line Spread Function of Skin using Simulated Data

Abstract

Abstract In this article, the authors propose a method to estimate the ink layer layout for a three-dimensional (3D) printer. This enables 3D printed skin to be produced with the desired translucency, which they represent as line spread function (LSF). A deep neural network in an encoder‐decoder model is used for the estimation. It was previously reported that machine learning is an effective way to formulate the complex relationship between optical properties such as LSF and the ink layer layout in a 3D printer. However, although 3D printers are more widespread, the printing process is still time-consuming. Hence, it may be difficult to collect enough data to train a neural network sufficiently. Therefore, in this research, they prepare the training data, which is the correspondence between an LSF and the ink layer layout in a 3D printer, via computer simulation. They use a method to simulate the subsurface scattering of light for multilayered media. The deep neural network was trained with the simulated data and evaluated using a CG skin object. The result shows that their proposed method can estimate an appropriate ink layer layout that closely reproduces the target color and translucency.