A new handbook on the appearance of wet surfaces, co-authored by Mathieu Hébert

On The February 3, 2023

Mathieu Hébert, Senior lecturer at Institut d'Optique Graduate School and Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, is co-auhtoring this new book on wet materials and their appearance, directed by Lionel Simonot.

As everyone can see every day, many objects or materials change their appearance when they get wet. Most of the time, the object becomes more translucent, its color darker and more chromatic.
Beyond these general trends, is it possible to predict these changes in appearance for a given type of surface, and for a given humidity level? This is the question studied in this book, by drawing up a first inventory of available knowledge and ongoing research in multiple fields of application: in remote sensing, to correctly identify surfaces and estimate moisture content; in public lighting, to improve visibility on wet roads; in computer graphics, to render wet surfaces in a more realistic way…
This book was initiated by the GDR Appamat, a grouping of research focused on material appearance created in 2019 by the French national center for scientific research (CNRS). In 9 chapters, 26 specialists from various disciplines present different approaches that open perspectives on this field of research. Hopefully, students, engineers, and researchers will be inspired by these ideas to propose future developments.