HP, 3M and UC Santa Cruz have been collaborating on creating a new kind of paper with specular micro geometry. Which in plain english means, what looks like regular flat paper to your eye, is actually covered in thousands of microscopic hills and valleys.

Which again, means we can print onto those tiny shapes to control the way light reflects them from different angles. The result is the object in a photo would reflect light the same way as the object would in real life. That's groundbreaking. At least, that's what your eyes will perceive it to be.

The technology still has a long way more to go, and they've only been able to get the dots down to a certain size, so the image might still look a little pixelated. They can currently only do it in black and white, but they believe its just a matter of refining their manufacturing techniques.

The video, which shows proof-of-concept, is amazing. Check it out below: [UCSC via FStoppers via PetaPixel]