DF-ACBlurGAN: Structure-Aware Conditional Generation of Internally Repeated Patterns for Biomaterial Microtopography Design

Abstract

Learning to generate images with internally repeated and periodic structures poses a fundamental challenge for machine learning and computer vision models, which are typically optimised for local texture statistics and semantic realism rather than global structural consistency. This limitation is particularly pronounced in applications requiring strict control over repetition scale, spacing, and boundary coherence, such as microtopographical biomaterial surfaces. In this work, biomaterial design serves as a use case to study conditional generation of repeated patterns under weak supervision and class imbalance. We propose DF-ACBlurGAN, a structure-aware conditional generative adversarial network that explicitly reasons about long-range repetition during training. The approach integrates frequency-domain repetition scale estimation, scale-adaptive Gaussian blurring, and unit-cell reconstruction to balance sharp local features with stable global periodicity. Conditioning on experimentally derived biological response labels, the model synthesises designs aligned with target functional outcomes. Evaluation across multiple biomaterial datasets demonstrates improved repetition consistency and controllable structural variation compared to conventional generative approaches.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: Topographical designs and their fabrication into a TopoChip used in high-throughput biological screening.
• Figure 2: The DF-ACBlurGAN architecture.
• Figure 3: Illustration of FFT-based repetition analysis for patterned topographies.
• Figure 4: Training procedure of DF-ACBlurGAN.
• Figure 5: Qualitative comparison of generated P. aeruginosa topographies under different model variants.