Efficient plenoptic imaging representation: Why do we need it?
The 3D representation of the world visual information has been a challenge for a long time both in the analogue and digital domains. At least in the past decade, 3D stereo-based solutions have become very common. However, several constraints and limitations ended up causing a negative impact on its user popularity and market deployment. Recent developments in terms of acquisition and display devices have shown that it is possible to offer more immersive and powerful 3D experiences by adopting higher dimensional representations. In this context, the so-called plenoptic function offers an excellent framework to analyze and discuss the recent and future developments towards improved 3D imaging representations, functionalities and applications. Since they are associated to huge amounts of data, the new imaging modalities such as light fields and point clouds critically ask for appropriate efficient coding solutions. In this context, the main objective of this paper is to present, organize and discuss the recent trends and future developments on 3D visual data representation in a plenoptic function framework. This is critical to effectively plan the next research and standardization steps on 3D imaging representation and coding.