Gaussian Splatting's promise has always been a tool for the technically adventurous, and a democratizing force for anyone with a camera and a story to tell. Project ETERNAL, a new initiative launched this week, leans hard into the second half of that promise, and does so with a coalition of partners that brings real institutional weight to the effort.
The campaign is a collaboration between Antigravity, the maker of the A1 8K 360-degree camera drone, Insta360, cloud reconstruction platform Splatica, and CyArk, the non-profit organization that has spent two decades digitally preserving the world's most significant cultural heritage sites. Together, they're building a pipeline from aerial capture to immersive 3D Gaussian Splat model to rich annotated experience and opening it to anyone with a 360-degree camera.
The anchor of the technical workflow is the Antigravity A1, a 249g 360-degree camera drone. At that weight, the drone falls under most civil aviation lightweight exemptions, which matters enormously at fragile heritage sites where larger, louder equipment has historically been unwelcome or outright banned. The platform creates an air-to-ground 360 capture path that doesn't require a film crew or specialist permits to deploy.
I have been fortunate enough to test the A1, specifically for its gaussian splatting capabilities in partnership with Antigravity.
The reconstruction side is handled by Splatica, a cloud platform specifically designed to convert INSV files into Gaussian Splat models automatically. I have also been able to test Splatica and it's honestly very nice to be able to upload one file and process immediately.
CyArk's involvement grounds the initiative in genuine institutional expertise. The organization has already authored new virtual tours of Pompeii and Civita di Bagnoregio, two Italian heritage sites serving as the campaign's pilot projects, using Antigravity A1 footage processed through Splatica and presented via CyArk's Tapestry platform. The splat models for both sites are publicly viewable on SuperSplat.
Beyond the institutional pilot, Project ETERNAL is launching a community challenge built around the prompt: "If you could preserve one place forever, what would it be?" Open to 360 degree camera and drone users worldwide, the challenge runs from April 24 to June 24, 2026. Participants capture a meaningful location in 360, process it into a Gaussian Splat via Splatica, and share a video online. Twelve prizes are on offer, with a top award of $3,500 cash plus a one year Splatica subscription. For those without access to hardware, Project ETERNAL has partnered with Insta360's Think Bold Challenge Fund, which can provide device support to compelling proposals.
Project ETERNAL is a bet that this technology gap has finally closed enough to be worth opening up at scale. Major corporations are continuing to invest in gaussian splatting, now that the barrier to entry has continued to fall and distribution continues to increase. Details and challenge submission information are available here.
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