Multi-Swarm Drone Imaging for First-Person View Capture
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional multi-view cinematography faces challenges in capturing immersive first-person views, especially in outdoor scenes or large spaces, due to restrictions on camera placement and movement, requiring precise alignment and complex post-processing, and lacks automated systems for tracking targets without physical contact or prior knowledge of movement.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising two swarms of drones, where the first swarm captures images of a target's face to determine head pose and gaze, and transmits this information to the second swarm to adjust camera poses and capture environmental images, generating a first-person view through post-processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If cameras are mounted on the actor's head to capture first-person view, then first-person view can be captured, but the actor's movement is restricted and the performance naturalness is affected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the cameras from the actor's head and relocates them to external drone platforms. This removes the physical burden and movement restrictions from the actor while maintaining the ability to capture first-person view footage through automated tracking systems that follow the actor throughout the scene.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces drones as intermediary carriers between the actor and the cameras. The drones act as mobile platforms that can dynamically position cameras to capture first-person perspectives without physical contact with the actor, thereby preserving movement freedom while achieving accurate viewpoint capture.
2Measurement precision
If multiple fixed cameras are used for multi-view cinematography, then multi-view images can be captured, but the system cannot track target movement in large spaces or outdoor scenes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the static fixed camera system into a dynamic mobile drone system. The drones can move freely through large spaces and outdoor environments while maintaining precise tracking of the actor, enabling multi-view cinematography in locations and scales that were previously inaccessible to fixed camera systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds the aerial dimension by deploying drones in three-dimensional space around the actor. This vertical and spatial dimensionality allows cameras to capture multi-view footage from angles and positions that ground-based fixed cameras cannot achieve, particularly in outdoor and large-scale environments.
3Ease of operation
If a master controller is used to control multiple cameras, then camera trajectories can be managed, but the system complexity and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables each drone to autonomously track the actor using onboard sensors and navigation systems. Rather than requiring a centralized master controller to manage every camera's trajectory, each drone independently determines its own position and orientation relative to the actor, significantly reducing system complexity while maintaining coordinated multi-view capture.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements real-time feedback loops where each drone continuously monitors the actor's position through detection systems and automatically adjusts its trajectory accordingly. This decentralized feedback mechanism allows independent camera control without complex centralized coordination, simplifying the overall control architecture while achieving precise tracking.
Data Source
AI summary
A system of multi-view imaging of an environment through which a target moves includes pluralities of drones, each drone having a drone camera. A first plurality of drones moves to track target movement, capturing a corresponding first plurality of images of the target's face, making real time determinations of the target's head pose and gaze from the captured images and transmitting the determinations to a second plurality of drones. The second plurality of drones moves to track target movement of the target, with drone camera poses determined at least in part by the head pose and gaze determinations received from the first plurality of drones, in order to capture a second plurality of images of portions of the environment in front of the target. Post-processing of the second plurality of images allows generation of a first-person view representative of a view of the environment seen by the target.