  We tackle the problem of modeling light scattering in homogeneous translucent
material and estimating its scattering parameters. A scattering phase function
is one of such parameters which affects the distribution of scattered
radiation. It is the most complex and challenging parameter to be modeled in
practice, and empirical phase functions are usually used. Empirical phase
functions (such as Henyey-Greenstein (HG) phase function or its modified ones)
are usually presented and limited to a specific range of scattering materials.
This limitation raises concern for an inverse rendering problem where the
target material is generally unknown. In such a situation, a more general phase
function is preferred. Although there exists such a general phase function in
the polynomial form using a basis such as Legendre polynomials
\cite{Fowler1983}, inverse rendering with this phase function is not
straightforward. This is because the base polynomials may be negative
somewhere, while a phase function cannot. This research presents a novel
general phase function that can avoid this issue and an inverse rendering
application using this phase function. The proposed phase function was
positively evaluated with a wide range of materials modeled with Mie scattering
theory. The scattering parameters estimation with the proposed phase function
was evaluated with simulation and real-world experiments.
