Since the 1970s, various image and video coding techniques have been explored, and some of them have been included in the video coding standards issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) and International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG).

The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) working group that develops media coding standards. These standards include a set of ontologies for the codification of intellectual property rights (IPR) information related to media.

The widespread adoption of new 3D sensor and authoring technologies has made it possible to capture 3D scenes and models in real time with decent visual quality. As an example, Microsoft's Kinect and Apple's PrimeSense technology are now being used in a wide variety of interactive 3D mobile applications, including gaming and augmented reality applications.