1. A method of determining a distance to an object by a robotic device, the method comprising: interleaving left and right images of the device surroundings to produce a video stream; evaluating the video stream to determine a distance to an object in a visual scene associated with the surroundings visual scene; and causing the robotic device to execute an action in based at least in part on the distance; wherein: the left and the right images are provided by a left and right camera, respectively, the right camera disposed spatially from the left camera on the device; and the interleaving and encoding cooperate to effectuate the reduction in the energy use compared to executing the action without the interleaving.