US Patent 9846427 Characterizing 3-D printed objects for 3-D printing

The systems and methods described herein include an approach to performing quality assessment for 3-D printed objects during the printing process, for collecting data regarding 3-D printed objects, and for capturing data to make a digital model of an object. This approach uses sensor data (e.g., digital imagery) to characterize printing progress or to detect 3-D printing defects that would otherwise result in printing incomplete objects, such as premature printing job termination, dry printing, over/under application, movement of the filament, and other defects. Sensor data capturing can also be used as part of a destructive scanning process to perform post-printing object assessment or to collect data on a real-world object to facilitate creation of a digital model. These systems and methods may leverage the discrete nature of a pixel provided through digital imagery to be assessed with limited computational resources in a non-recursive manner.