The following report is the first of a series of technical documents of the joint research project on the mathematical properties of the representation, compression and dynamics of Surfels, which is carried out by ETH (Zurich, Switzerland) and MERL (Boston, USA). It documents the work performed at ETH between December 1998 and March 1999. The objective of the initial phase of the project was to give a survey and classification of existing techniques, each dealing with a particular issue involved in the project or pursuing a similar purpose as the project. Consequently, this report is mainly presenting a structured literature overview of relevant contributions.