Glass Imaging Expands Engineering Team
Glass Taps Into Tampere Imaging Ecosystem in Finland to Source Local Tech Talent
October 8, 2024 – Los Altos, CA / Tampere, Finland – Glass Imaging, the company leveraging artificial intelligence to revolutionize image quality, today announced the opening of a new office, along with the addition of a team of engineers based in Tampere, Finland. The new talent was sourced through collaboration with Business Tampere, a Finnish non-profit organization that supports regional economic development. Business Tampere coordinates the Tampere Imaging Ecosystem, which stimulates R&D activities across products, services, and solutions related to digital imaging. The new hires in Finland will work alongside Glass Imaging's team in Los Altos, CA, to develop the next generation of the company’s imaging software and hardware.
“We are building a team of computational imaging experts and machine learning engineers to advance the efficient AI techniques we’ve developed for enhancing image quality directly on smartphone cameras,” said Tom Bishop, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CTO of Glass Imaging. “This is a highly specialized field, and it’s typically challenging to find talent for these roles, but we’ve found that the talent pool in Tampere includes the kind of specialized researchers and engineers who can create edge AI image restoration algorithms deployable on smartphone NPU chips. These algorithms efficiently process clear, defined images with authentic detail and quality.”
“I’m delighted to welcome Glass Imaging to the Tampere Imaging Ecosystem, and I’m proud that our city was chosen for their first European office,” said Oliver Hussey, Team Leader of New Investments at Business Tampere. “Glass is building the future of digital imaging technology, and Tampere has long been a hub of great engineering talent.”
The Tampere Imaging Ecosystem is a community of over 25 companies and academic institutions focused on imaging, optics, and camera technology development. Over the past eight years, the ecosystem has become one of the world’s top imaging clusters, attracting more than 13 overseas companies to establish new R&D sites in Tampere, including Microsoft (Surface), Amazon (Ring), Axon, Flock Safety, and others. Tampere has a rich history in digital imaging and mobile development, being the birthplace of the Nokia Communicator, and a major hub for smartphone imaging technology for decades.
Glass Imaging recently announced a $9.3M extended seed funding round led by GV (Google Ventures), with participation from Future Ventures, Abstract Ventures, and LDV Capital. The company has introduced its Neural ISP software, GlassAI, which has been independently tested and validated for enhancing resolution and image clarity in smartphones. Glass Imaging is also co-designing novel optical systems alongside GlassAI to power the next generation of compact, high-performance camera modules.
This latest funding round follows an initial seed investment in 2021 led by LDV Capital, along with GroundUP Ventures.
For more information on Glass Imaging and GlassAI, visit www.glass-imaging.com
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About Glass Imaging
Glass Imaging was founded by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, Ph.D., former Apple engineers who created the technology behind the iPhone’s Portrait Mode. Their mission with Glass is to revolutionize the quality of compact camera systems on smartphones, closing the gap with professional DSLR and mirrorless cameras. The Glass team has deep expertise in optical engineering, computational imaging, deep learning, and efficient computer vision algorithms. Glass Imaging is currently developing licensable IP, including GlassAI, to enhance both camera architectures and software-based solutions. Their software exploits the power of edge AI chips found in modern devices and can be tailored to deliver superior photo quality on any current or new camera. Glass is also pioneering a new class of optical hardware designs that overcome the limitations of traditional camera architectures.
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About Business Tampere
Business Tampere is the economic development agency for the Tampere Region, offering expertise in business services, investment promotion, and internationalization. The agency fosters collaboration between businesses, educational institutions, and economic stakeholders to maintain Tampere’s status as Finland’s most attractive area for investment, entrepreneurship, and research.
