FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a Distification method 300. Method 300 begins (block 302) where a computing device, such as any of the computing devices depicted in FIG. 1 or 2, e.g., computing devices 100, 202-212, 220, 222, or 224, obtain (block 304) one or more three dimensional (3D) images. In certain embodiments, the 3D images may be obtained directly from the computing devices that captured or generated the 3D images (e.g., devices 100, 202-212, 224). In other embodiments, the images may be obtained by from a computing device that stores the captured or generated 3D images (e.g., devices 220-224). The disclosure herein contemplates that any computing device in the 3D capture and generation life cycle (as described herein for FIG. 2) may execute (block 302) of the Distify method 300. The 3D images can be related such as, for example, pulled from a series of frames of a 3D movie, e.g., where 100 frames (i.e., images) are pulled from a 5 second segment of 3D movie with 20 frames per second.
In certain embodiments, each of the 3D images may include rules defining a 3D point cloud. The point cloud can define the surface of an object of the 3D image or otherwise define features or items of interest in the 3D image. In some aspects, the 3D images and/or rules may be defined in a 3D data file, such as a PLY file or PDC file.
