The University of Idaho Drone Lab has scanned the 2026 US Capitol Christmas Tree, and the scans have been turned into a gaussian splat.
The tree is an Engelmann spruce from the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest in northern Idaho. Organizers of the Capitol Christmas Tree program asked the UI College of Natural Resources, Digital Forest Affiliates and the Drone Lab to scan and photograph it, and the resulting 3D renderings and map products will support the educational programming that accompanies the tree on its trip across the country to the Capitol.
The capture took place on October 14, after the US Forest Service granted permission to fly around the tree. Drone Lab Manager JB Playfair flew a Freefly Astro carrying an XGRIDS PortalCam on a 20 minute flight of more than 10 orbits.
PortalCam was introduced at IBC 2025 as a spatial camera that captures a space as its operator walks through it. PortalCam, which won Best Product in the Intelligent Technology category at NAB 2026, pairs four cameras, two of them 200 degree fisheye lenses, with a LiDAR unit rated at 856,000 points per second out to 60 meters. The Idaho capture mounts the same unit under a drone.
The Drone Lab also ran a full lidar and photogrammetric survey of the surrounding forest with a Freefly Systems Flux O1 lidar sensor. Digital Forest Affiliates staff then processed the scans into the splat. The Drone Lab post does not name the reconstruction software, or say whether the Flux O1 data feeds into the splat or only into the separate map products.
The splat runs in a PlayCanvas viewer, with a second version that adds a surround view.
The project is detailed by the Drone Lab.
