TAIPEI, Taiwan — September 8, 2021 — Frontier, a collaboration software as a service (SaaS) designed to digitize fabric materials, enhance supply chain management, and boost 3D design capabilities, has introduced a new 3D Fabric Creator on its platform that uses AI technology to convert 2D scanned textile images into 3D design compatible assets.
The 3D Fabric Creator generates essential texture maps needed for use in virtual prototyping, much like a topographical relief map, so 3D designers can import material files directly into any 3D design environment.
“Material scanning must be able to re-construct textural metadata such as normal, roughness, displacement and physical values so these datapoints can be used across different design platforms,” said Moritz Sontheimer, Frontier AI specialist. “We have the luxury to build models from a very large and quality consistent data base, which allows us to continuously improve our accuracy.”
According to Frontier, there is an insatiable demand for Digital Product Creation (DCP) as more brands go-to-market with increasing speed. Not only does 3D Fabric Creator generate essential datapoints of a fabric, it allows users to share material data for use across different design systems. As a result, brand designers no longer need to chase suppliers for digital materials or acquire digital materials through a 3rd party platform. In other words, the materials you get from your suppliers is the material that can be produced in bulk production.
Frontier’s main objective is to work with the supply chain to help make digital 3D design as friendly as possible so that more brands can gain access to their digital materials. Frontier’s objective is to bridge the technology gap between brands and supply chain using AI/ML (artificial intelligence/ machine learning) to enhance all material relevant data from specs, text description, pattern description, fabric construction and material science through cloud applications. Frontier users a user content generation model, therefore users have full control over product IP and access. It also uses a pay as you go model so there is no upfront investment.
“The apparel industry has finally opened up to the possibility of a broader implementation
of 3D tech in the supply chain,” said Alexa Dehmel, owner of Innovative Design & Development Consulting. “Frontier’s 3D Fabric Creator is a great technology in bridging the gap between a brand’s design process and their suppliers’ digital assets.”
Frontier’s whitepaper jointly published with the Interline on using AI to scale material digitization is available now and can be demonstrated on the Frontier platform by visiting https://pse.is/3md35g
Posted September 8, 2021
Source: Frontier