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 not known to be practiced or claimed by any party 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/11659