METHOD FOR SHOOTING A PERFORMANCE USING AN UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE

• US 20140267777A1
• Filed: 03/10/2014
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: LE CLERC, Francois, BAILLARD, Caroline, MOLLET, Nicolas
• Granted Patent: US 9,621,821 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/169
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 15/006 Apparatus mounted on flying objects
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 15/07 Arrangements of lamps in studios
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/101 specially adapted for aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2224 related to virtual studio applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/28 Mobile studios

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method for shooting a performance making use of umanned aerial vehicles, such drones for example, to provide the physical markers that are needed to give a physical actor indications on the positioning of virtual elements to be inserted later in the scene, and with which s/he needs to interact.

Claims

1. Unmanned aerial vehicle, wherein it comprises a marker indicating a position of an interaction intended to occur between an actor and a virtual element moving along a trajectory.

2. Unmanned aerial vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the marker is on an extremity of an object rigidly attached to the unmanned aerial vehicle.

3. Unmanned aerial vehicle according to claim 2 which comprises propellers, wherein the stick is rigidly attached to the unmanned aerial vehicle in such a way that the extremity of the stick can be accessed without danger of getting hurt by the propellers.

4. Unmanned aerial vehicle according to claim 1, wherein its position and attitude with respect to a 3D coordinate system is controllable using a navigation control method.

5. Unmanned aerial vehicle according to claim 4 wherein the navigation control method estimates the 3D position of its center of mass (r(t)) from the measurements provided by an optical motion capture system through non-coplanar retro-reflective markers attached to the unmanned aerial vehicle.

10. Film shooting studio wherein it is equipped with at least one unmanned aerial vehicle according to claim 1.

6. Method for shooting a performance in which at least one actor interacts with a virtual element moving along a trajectory, wherein the method makes use of an unmanned aerial vehicle navigation control capability.

7. Method according to claim 6, wherein a position of an interaction intended to occur between an actor and the moving virtual element is materialized by a marker on the unmanned aerial vehicle.

8. Method according to the claim 6, wherein when several unmanned aerial vehicles are used to shoot a scene, a minimal separation distance between these unmanned aerial vehicles is maintained at all times.

9. Apparatus comprising means to specify a 3D position of an unmanned aerial vehicle according to a determined trajectory, wherein said means are configured in order that a marker on the unmanned aerial vehicle follows the trajectory at a predefined speed, said trajectory being determined in order to allow interactions intended to occur between an actor and a virtual element moving along a trajectory.