diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8abed47..325c03d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -9,9 +9,17 @@ import simplify
 simplify(points, tolerance, highQuality)
 ```
 
+`points`: A sequence (e.g. tuple or array) of dictionaries, containing x, y coordinates: `{'x': int/float, 'y': int/float}`
+	or a sequence of sequences of at least two numbers (int or float), the first 
+	two elements of each inner sequence are treated as coordinates. Extra elements (e.g. z 
+	coordinate, name, etc) of both point sequences and dicts are ignored but preserved for 
+	points which remain. 
 
-`points`: An array of dictionaries, containing x, y coordinates: `{'x': int/float, 'y': int/float}`
-
+Examples
+  * array of dict - `[{'x': 1, 'y': 1}, {'x': 2, 'y': 3}, {'x': 3, 'y': 5} ]`
+  * tuple of tuple - `((1,1), (2,3), (3,5), (5,5))`
+  * tuple of array - `([1,1,'first'], [2,3,'second'], [5,8,'third'])`
+ 
 `tolerance (optional, 0.1 by default)`: Affects the amount of simplification that occurs (the smaller, the less simplification).
 
 `highestQuality (optional, True by default)`: Flag to exclude the distance pre-processing. Produces higher quality results, but runs slower.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/simplify.py b/simplify.py
index cf2e50e..46de6d5 100644
--- a/simplify.py
+++ b/simplify.py
@@ -1,6 +1,40 @@
 
+def getSquareDistance_list(p1, p2):
+    """
+    Square distance between two points
+    """
+    dx = p1[0] - p2[0]
+    dy = p1[1] - p2[1]
+
+    return dx * dx + dy * dy
+
+
+def getSquareSegmentDistance_list(p, p1, p2):
+    """
+    Square distance between point and a segment
+    """
+    x = p1[0]
+    y = p1[1]
+
+    dx = p2[0] - x
+    dy = p2[1] - y
+
+    if dx != 0 or dy != 0:
+        t = ((p[0] - x) * dx + (p[1] - y) * dy) / (dx * dx + dy * dy)
 
-def getSquareDistance(p1, p2):
+        if t > 1:
+            x = p2[0]
+            y = p2[1]
+        elif t > 0:
+            x += dx * t
+            y += dy * t
+
+    dx = p[0] - x
+    dy = p[1] - y
+
+    return dx * dx + dy * dy
+
+def getSquareDistance_dict(p1, p2):
     """
     Square distance between two points
     """
@@ -10,7 +44,7 @@ def getSquareDistance(p1, p2):
     return dx * dx + dy * dy
 
 
-def getSquareSegmentDistance(p, p1, p2):
+def getSquareSegmentDistance_dict(p, p1, p2):
     """
     Square distance between point and a segment
     """
@@ -35,8 +69,11 @@ def getSquareSegmentDistance(p, p1, p2):
 
     return dx * dx + dy * dy
 
-
 def simplifyRadialDistance(points, tolerance):
+    point_is_dict = isinstance(points[0], dict)
+
+    getSquareDistance = getSquareDistance_dict if point_is_dict else getSquareDistance_list
+
     length = len(points)
     prev_point = points[0]
     new_points = [prev_point]
@@ -55,6 +92,10 @@ def simplifyRadialDistance(points, tolerance):
 
 
 def simplifyDouglasPeucker(points, tolerance):
+    point_is_dict = isinstance(points[0], dict)
+
+    getSquareSegmentDistance = getSquareSegmentDistance_dict if point_is_dict else getSquareSegmentDistance_list
+
     length = len(points)
     markers = [0] * length  # Maybe not the most efficent way?