OptoFidelity

What does the company do?

– OptoFidelity operates within the smart devices ecosystem that is phones, pads, XR, wearables, connected cars and so on. We design and build unique automated test measurement systems for the top global mobile and smart device players in various industries. 8 out of 10 leading mobile device companies are our customers, and we also serve the intelligent machines ecosystem.

– We help our customers to create the best smart devices on the market with our testing and measurement solutions. Further to that, we create solutions that help the customers shorten their products’ time to market. We are especially good in sensor and display testing.

– In particular, we coach our customers to enhance the user experience of smart devices. For example, when someone is using a touch screen device, it is crucial that it responds accurately to the user interaction. We can provide a test robot system that calibrates these devices in the production line and hence ensures better user experience.

What is the focus of your Tampere site?

– Tampere site is the company headquarters providing a majority of the software and photonics development. OptoFidely has offices in three continents but most of our developers are located in Tampere.

Why Tampere?

– The roots of OptoFidelity are in Tampere. The company was established in 2005, not more than a couple of hundred metres from where our HQ is situated now. For us this area is like a Silicon Valley with various companies, Tampere University of Techonology (TUT), Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)… Our customers are nowadays mostly abroad but there are plenty of opportunities for cooperation locally. Universities in Tampere also provide the skilled graduate that are mandatory for a company’s success.

– In the early days of OptoFidelity our biggest client was Nokia. In fact, us founders of OptoFidelity were still working in a software company called Atostek, when one particular project with Nokia led us to invent some core photonics technologies and a bit later to establish OptoFidelity. Since then the company has grown and diversified to a great extent.

– Another reason for us to be headquartered in Tampere is the strong imaging ecosystem and the ex-Nokia and Microsoft professionals of the region. They are such a competent bunch of people, now working in various companies – from startups to major global players with sites in Tampere.

What’s particularly strong in the Tampere Region?

–  There are notable mature technologies like laser technology coordinated by Optoelectronics Research Centre at TUT or camera competence originally born in Nokia. Pervasive computing at TUT is also worth mentioning here.

– As for notable rising technologies I would like to commend signal processing, AI, robotics and Centre of Immersive Visual Technologies at TUT.

Examples of your partners in the Tampere business ecosystem…

– In photonics NomiCam, Piceasoft, Grundium, Modulight, Cavitar, just to name a few. In other fields Wisematic, Granite Devices and of course TUT.

– The atmosphere here encourages cooperation and open co-creation. There are, for example, thematic meetings at Kampusareena (a hub of science, research and technology located at the heart of the TUT campus) and people are eager to share their thoughts and ideas, even unfinished ones.

 Your background?

– My educational background in short: 1997 B.Sc (elec) and 2007 M.Sc (measurement tech, TUT). I started my career in mid 90’s working with state of the art imaging technologies, namely, paper machine web break analysis system. In Atostek, my role was broader in technology consultancy.

– Within OptoFidelity, I have had the opportunity to work in many roles, all related to technology thoughout. Naturally the company has been changing quite a lot when it has grown from three persons to 150 employees!

Fondest memories and achievements in your career so far?

– The co-creation and development of Virtual Reality (VR) performance testing solution: it has given me so much energy, and reception by the customers has been phenomenal. A particularly memorable highlight, related to the whole VR development process, I would have to say is when I was invited to present at SID Display Week Los Angeles in 2017.

– Another memorable event was related to video performance testing in 2013. We had just developed a new, disruptive way to measure temporal video characteristics, and I ended up making some ad-hoc testing in the basement of my home. I found a surprising performance drop in an Android operating system version that had just been released. The findings were published the very next day, and in the following morning we got email from Google’s graphics performance executive. They wanted us to test a new release candidate before publishing it. I felt so proud of our work at that moment.

How do you see the future?

– As a technology enthusiast, I would be happy to live in almost any decade. However, the recent advances in optical metrology are particularly important for me. We are just starting to understand what the true meaning of light is for our life.

– I’m working in the field of AR/VR testing, and photonics have a really significant role there. Major breakthroughs are to be expected and they will change the way we use our smart devices.