The computation of surface data based on visual information is an important sub-
component in the computer-graphical surface reconstruction of solids and in the 
control of 3-D environments. Different methodologies can be used for that as, 
e.g., static stereo, shape from motion, shape from shading, photometric stereo, 
or structured lightening. There exist different basic approaches in literature 
often based on simplifying assumptions. However, it is well known that such 
assumptions may not be true if surface reconstruction is applied under practical 
circumstances. In this paper, several problems are mentioned which are related 
to practical applications of surface reconstruction approaches following the 
methodologies of static stereo, shape from motion, and photometric stereo. We 
present specific solutions to cope with these problems, or the solution state 
what was reachable in our work. Some problems are ill-posed and limitations of 
approaches have to be accepted. As a second contribution of this paper, we 
discuss the evaluation problem of surface reconstruction algorithms. It is 
important to  answer such questions as  1) For what kind of surfaces and  3-D 
objects an algorithm behaves either well or bad? 2) How accurate are the 
reconstruction results of an algorithm under specified circumstances? What 
measure can be used to evaluate reconstruction accuracy? 3) How to compare 
reconstruction results following different methodologies? 4) What algorithm can 
be suggested for a specific application project? and so on. So far we present 
some proposals and first quantitative or qualitative results for answering such 
questions. In our opinion a methodology for evaluating surface reconstruction 
algorithms is still at its beginning. However a critical evaluation of potential 
methods in project applications is helpful in selecting the appropriate 
algorithm.