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.