Niantic Spatial has named the winners of the first Scaniverse #SplatYourWorld Challenge, with the Grand Prize going to Hiroto Otsubo for a capture of Salar de Uyuni.
Niantic Spatial opened the challenge in late June, asking entrants to capture real world locations as gaussian splats with Scaniverse and submit an exported .SPZ file alongside a public video walkthrough. Submissions ran from July 1 through July 31, with judging in the first week of August across a Grand Prize and three category prizes for Industrial Environments, Natural Landscapes, and Urban Infrastructure.
Otsubo captured Salar de Uyuni, the salt flat in southwest Bolivia, with an Insta360 X5 at a site more than 3,500 meters above sea level with almost no buildings, trees, or distinct visual landmarks. Judges scored entries on reconstruction quality, scale and coverage, and real world impact. Mohamed Sayed, Senior Research Scientist at Niantic Spatial, called the scene "an open expanse of almost nothing," and said it succeeds through gentle textures in a field where entrants aim to cram the most detail per pixel.
Otsubo said he wanted to see whether Scaniverse could reconstruct "the vastness, reflections, and sense of isolation" that make Uyuni distinct.
Gabriele Romagnoli of XR AI Spotlight took Best Industrial Environment Reconstruction for an aerial capture of the Sleutel Heat Centre Leiden, an industrial waste heating facility, flown with an Antigravity A1 drone. Oliver Johnston, an AI Operations Specialist at Niantic Spatial, pointed to the top dome structures and scaffolding and to the building reflections in the canal.
Razvan Onisca of Archaic Knowledge took Best Natural Landscape Reconstruction for Detunata Goala, a geological site and nature reserve in Transylvania, Romania, captured with a DJI Avata 360 drone.
Romagnoli took the Urban Infrastructure category as well, for the CORPUS Museum in South Holland and its 35 meter tall seated human figure. Romagnoli flew 4 minutes and 25 seconds of 360 degree footage on the Antigravity A1, processed in the cloud with Scaniverse. Jonathan Stephens, Founder of Pixel Reconstruct, said of the reconstruction, "I could see this used for a base of a 3D map."
Honorable mentions went to Beatriz Junquera for the Bates-Scofield Homestead in Darien, Connecticut, and to Justin Ryan for a large scale aerial capture of downtown Chattanooga. Niantic Spatial describes its reconstruction technology as using AI priors to help infer geometry and structure from visual data.
Niantic Spatial is offering new users 105,000 free Scaniverse Top-Up Credits with the code FLEXYOURSCAN through August 31, 2026. Existing users must request a promo code.
