The appearance of real world world objects changes depending on lighting, but photographic prints do not… yet. Researchers at HP and UC Santa Cruz are working on a method of printing images of objects or scenes that allows lighting to affect the image. For example, a statue in a print would cast different shadows depending on which direction light strikes the print. The technology is still in its early stages — the prototypes don’t look much like photographs — but perhaps one day it’ll be paired with 3D cameras to capture realistic 3D prints that don’t require glasses.
(via UCSC via Fstoppers)