We have reached the pinnacle of civilization. I knew this day would come. Didn’t think it would happen this soon or in this manner though.

Yes, I’m sure I’ve proclaimed this before, and will most likely do it again when they perfect teleportation. But I can unequivocally say at this very moment that we have arrived. Ladies and gentleman, we can now print logos and other images in a sepia-toned, caramel-flavored design directly on our lattes. Yes. They can now put artwork on the surface of a beverage.

A company named OnLatte, Inc. has designed a special printer called, cleverly, the Latte Art Machine. It is in prototype form but if the results are any indication of what this puppy can do, we’ll be at version 1.0 in no time. Just hope they come up with a better name before every trendy little coffee shop goes out and buys one of these. Holy Barista Batman!

OnLatte displayed their new toy at the SIGGRAPH 2008 conference with wild success. Here’s a bunch of images of the caffeinated goodness from that very conference. There’s also a video at that page that demonstrates how this thing works.

While I didn’t travel to Los Angeles for the festivities, I can imagine through the magic of Photoshop, what a Miabi Mochaccino would look and taste like. Down the hatch.