Take that shower curtain, for example. US-based website photoshowercurtain.com is just one of a number of businesses capable of sticking your favourite water-related image onto plastic (prices start at $150). Then there's the hallway floor map. UK-based PrintedSpace can print the map of your choice using its specially developed Floorink technology onto vinyl cushion flooring (the company also offers personalised blinds and wall decals).

And let's not forget the tasteful leather sofa. US company Digital Leather has developed a clever technology that allows designers to produce digitally printed leather goods – an image is printed on a smart imaging film and laminated to the leather during the tanning process. The product is then finished like traditional leather. The potential uses of this particular technology are endless – Digital Leather has already produced wall-hanging tapestries for the Hollywood movie Prince of Persia, for a fraction of the price it would have cost the production team to buy tapestries that fit the bill made from other materials.

Some of these companies are taking existing print technologies and pushing it into new directions. Others are investing in R&D to develop new forms of printing that give them a USP in a crowded marketplace. What both groups have in common is that they're thinking outside the box and pushing the boundaries of what print can achieve. The fruits of their labour could be coming to your living room soon.

Check out how HP are embracing such applications , by watching the video of when Dan Digital was sent out to Barcelona to report on the subject: HERE