Appearance Printing - European Advanced Research School

The international manufacrturing industry is undergoing radical changes in the way items are digitally printed and fabricated. From the home to aerospace, the speed of change has had impacts on traditional methods of printing, and which has led to incomplete understanding of the design and reproduction workflow, for example accurate measurement of the optical and material properties, gloss, modelling and controlling printing systems beyond colour. 

To provide a strategic response to the needs of the industry, the group Appearance Printing - European Advanced Research School (ApPEARS), is a robust European network that builds upon the extensive experience across the partners, and is at the forefront for leading an innovative training programme. It will facilitate the successful completion of high quality PhDs by a significant body of early stage researchers through collaborative supervisory and research training practices which encompass innovative cross-disciplinary methodologies. 

It will co-create student research projects with cross sector partners and develop career potential through a structured programme of training events and placement opportunities across Europe. It will produce models of good practice for training and cross-disciplinary research that can be applied in the arts, science and technology fields. 

ApPEARS will focus on four key objectives: measurement and visual evaluation of material properties, reproduction of complex surface appearances, and predicting and minimizing reproduction errors. The exploitation of this complete reproduction workflow into high-impact application areas requires the development of end-use applications, combined with specialized training.

The overall academic goal of ApPEARS is to train a group of 15 early stage researchers into highly-skilled researchers, who will form the next generation of scientists, engineers, designers and entrepreneurs in the field of visual appearance and printing with the desire to forge new networks and collaboration. By the end of their training, they will gain not just a doctorate degree, but also skills that will ensure they are cross-disciplinary and open-minded, enquiring and experimental, well-grounded and ready for the academic and industrial workplace. Their portfolio of technical knowledge will include: physics and material/optical sciences, computer graphics, theoretical modelling and performing experiments; it will also include skills in presenting ideas, research methods, project management, industrial development, product innovation and marketing. All ESRs will have access to both academic and industrial sectors through exchange programmes among Beneficiaries and Partner Organisations. The ESRs working on individual research projects (IRP) relevant for the research objectives will contribute to new knowledge by demonstrating: novel 2.5D and 3D visualization methods, new methods for colour reproduction models, methods for realising complex surface geometries, intuitive 3D printing hardware and software, and new data encoding methods for multi-material printing.

The overall scientific goal of ApPEARS is to extend our understanding of the appearance of prints from two to three dimensions:

• Identifying the attributes that are correlated to the visual appearance of 2.5 and 3D surfaces
• Quantifying their impact on appearance and appearance matching
• Finding suitable measurement techniques to assess these attributes
• Explaining and modelling the relationship between physical material properties and psychophysical appearance attributes
• Defining a reference appearance space with the most relevant properties to communicate appearance most efficiently

The practical goal of ApPEARS is to actively further the exploitation of this knowledge in the EU for rational product development and standardisation actions linked to 2.5D and 3D appearance printing sectors, including creative industries, packaging, fine art reproduction, and medical simulation models and prosthetics. The project’s outputs will include development of tools, methods and protected inventions in colour and image processing, graphics and computing, machinery (print equipment, measuring devices) and material sciences (inks, pigments, dyes). It will promote innovation and entrepreneurial behaviour and successful transfer of technology from academia to industry.

In order to realise the research objectives of the project and the research training goals for the 15 ESRs, 4 work packages (WP) related to research have been defined. These research WPs are closely followed by the training events (WP1), exploitation, dissemi­nation and communi­cation (WP6), and coordination and project management (WP7).

• WP1 : Local, network and external training
• WP2: Measurement of material appearance
• WP3: Material appearance printing
• WP4: Material appearance workflow
• WP5: Methodologies for 2.5D and 3D printing applications
• WP6: Exploitation, Dissemination and Communication
• WP7: Coordination and Project management

WP1 will support PhD education for 15 early stage researchers and will help develop a) interdisciplinary researchers who can work on 2.5D and 3D print techniques to print material appearance on different substrates, b) entrepreneurs and innovators with a PhD to be embedded in the emerging field of 3D printing, c) researchers who can combine high-level research and commerical vision for industrial implementation of material appearance acqusition and reproduction using 2.5D and 3D printing, and d) bring together knowledge exchange between complementary sectors.

WP2 focuses on a number of key measurement challenges that must be overcome to successfully reproduce material appearance. In WP3, apart from investigating the key elements of an appearance printing pipeline, algorithms and models will be developed and implemented to realize such a pipeline. WP4 will propose novel representation models of appearance data suitable for printing applications and also provide test implementation using ICCMax architecture for processing pixel-wise colour information and spatial processing. WP5 will design content-creation environments for the reproduction of material appearance, and will cross-communicate with other WPs to seek new possibilities to explore and advance practical solutions by well-defined workflows and applications. 

WP6 will ensure efficient dissemination of project results to the wider scientific and industrial communities as well as effective knowledge transfer among the network. WP7 looks upon the coordination and management of ApPEARS with well defined management structure and working procedures for successful management.