Abstract
A method is disclosed in which a real-world site is photographically captured by an uncrewed aircraft (or ground platform) carrying survey-grade GNSS (RTK) positioning; reconstructed as a photorealistic three-dimensional scene representation (such as a 3D Gaussian splat) in a metric frame bound to an Earth-fixed geodetic datum; and then used as the authoring environment for camera moves, such that a keyframed, cinematically parameterized virtual camera path composed inside the reconstruction is (a) validated and compiled into a machine-executable flight mission that a real aircraft flies at true coordinates, (b) certified for obstacle clearance against a conservative geometric over-approximation derived from the same reconstruction, and (c) exported as world-coordinate camera data and survey constraints for motion tracking (matchmove) and other post-production consumers. Generalizations are disclosed for ground-based camera planning (dolly, crane, multi-camera, and fixed-camera placement staked to surveyed coordinates), for coverage-doctrine capture planning that designs the capture flight from the moves to be authored, and for a fail-closed cryptographic provenance scheme that separates captured from generated scene content at the layer level. The essential combination — the authored move in a captured, georeferenced photoreal model becomes both the flyable mission and the survey-anchored post-production camera — is, to the author's knowledge and per two internal product surveys conducted independently of one another in August 2026, practiced nowhere and claimed by no one as of this document's date.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Judson, Matthew D., "Authoring Drone Camera Moves in an RTK-Georeferenced 3D Gaussian Splat: Clearance-Certified Waypoint Missions and Survey-Anchored Post-Production Camera Export", Technical Disclosure Commons, (September 08, 2026)
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/11657