Single ImageWatermark Retrieval from 3D Printed Surfaces via Convolutional Neural Networks

Abstract

In this paper we propose and analyse a method for watermarking 3D printed objects, concentrating on the watermark retrieval problem. The method embeds the watermark in a planar region of the 3D printed object in the form of small semi-spherical or cubic bumps arranged at the nodes of a regular grid. The watermark is extracted from a single image of the watermarked planar region through a Convolutional Neural Network. Experiments with 3D printed objects, produced by filaments of various colours, show that in most cases the retrieval method has a high accuracy rate.