Photos That React to Real World Lighting

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.