New imaging firm Glass Imaging to open office in Tampere, Finland

The Nokia Communicator was a groundbreaking device at the end of the 1990s, combining the functionalities of a computer and a phone. Developed in Tampere, it was a unique smartphone series that marked Nokia’s prominence as one of the city’s largest employers at the time.

Today, the legacy of the Nokia Communicator endures in Tampere, a city with a rich history in digital imaging and mobile technology. Recently, the city has attracted a new player in the tech industry. On Thursday, it was announced that American imaging firm Glass Imaging, which leverages artificial intelligence, will open a new office in Tampere.

This development exemplifies how Tampere has successfully brought over a dozen foreign product development units to the city in the past eight years, including high-profile companies like Microsoft (Surface), Amazon (Ring), Axon, and Flock Safety. Currently, Tampere is home to more than 25 businesses and academic institutions focused on imaging, optics, and camera technology.

The recruitment of new engineers has been supported by Business Tampere, and the advancements in product development are expected to generate jobs in both the city and Finland. Glass Imaging was founded by former Apple engineers Ziv Attari and Tom Bishop, who led one of the iPhone development teams. Their goal is to improve the quality of consumer smartphone camera images to the level of professional cameras. The team specializes in optical design, computational imaging, deep learning, and efficient computer vision algorithms.

“This is a niche area where it’s generally hard to find talent. In Tampere, we have engineers capable of developing AI algorithms for efficient image processing while maintaining the authentic details and quality of the images,” Bishop stated in a press release.