Improved optical light scattering measurements by BSDF

Light scattering of surfaces can be exploited for in-vehicle displays and interior lighting with special visual effects. Optical design tools are used for efficient engineering, also for future special effects. The software requires the scattering characteristics of materials as input. . Additionally, transparent additive manufactured material (AM, 3D printed) show besides surface light scattering also volume light scattering. The presented work will present results of various interior vehicle materials in terms of surface light scattering and AM material with additional volume scattering. Therefore, it is necessary to characterize the optical properties of these materials with appropriate measurement methods. We measured successfully the light scattering as BSDF in reflection (BRDF) and in transmission (BTDF) using a goniophotometer. We further improved our goniophotometer to ensure high quality measurement results. Furthermore, we present our measurement results of BRDF of different surface materials. For the transparent AM material both BRDF and BTDF measurement results are shown and discussed. The obtained data can be used in optical software for a “pleasant” light design.