Modeling and rendering of heterogeneous translucent materials using the diffusion equation

An exemplary method includes providing image data for an illuminated physical sample of a heterogeneous translucent material, determining one or more material properties of the material based in part on a diffusion equation where one of the material properties is a diffusion coefficient for diffusion of radiation in the material and where the determining includes a regularization term for the diffusion coefficient, mapping the one or more material properties to a virtual object volume, assigning virtual illumination conditions to the virtual object volume, and rendering the virtual object volume using the virtual illumination conditions as a boundary condition for a system of diffusion equations of the virtual object volume. Other methods, devices and systems are also disclosed.