Introduction to the special section on 3D representation, compression, and rendering

A new set of three-dimensional (3D) data formats and associated compression technologies are emerging with the aim to achieve more flexible representation and higher compression of 3D and multiview video content. These new tools will facilitate the generation of multiview output (e.g., as needed for multiview auto-stereoscopic displays), provide richer immersive multimedia experiences, and allow new interactive applications. This special section includes a timely set of papers covering the most recent technical developments in this area with papers covering topics in the different aspects of 3D systems, from representation and compression algorithms to rendering techniques and quality assessment. This special section includes a good balance on topics that are of interest to academic, industrial, and standardization communities. We believe that this collection of papers represent the most recent advances in representation, compression, rendering, and quality assessment of 3D scenes.