Israeli engineer, Ziv Attar has built a career around one goal: making smartphone cameras smaller while improving the quality of the images they produce. His journey has now reached another major milestone, with OpenAI acquiring his startup Glass Imaging for $300 million.
Born and raised in Afula, Attar studied optical engineering at the Technion and began his career at Rafael in 2002 as a senior optics specialist. In 2007, he founded OpEra Optics, focusing on optical and miniature camera technologies.
In 2011, Attar co-founded LinX with Andrey Tovchigrechko. The company developed compact mobile cameras using multiple sensors and lenses to improve light sensitivity, reduce motion blur and enable 3D photography.
As CEO, Attar also helped develop a dual-camera system similar to today’s Portrait Mode, keeping the foreground subject sharp while blurring the background. LinX later developed a dual-camera system combining monochrome and colour images to improve low-light photography.
Apple acquired LinX for $25 million in early 2015, with Attar joining Apple’s camera algorithm team. LinX’s technology helped contribute to Portrait Mode, which debuted on the iPhone 7 Plus in 2016.
“Portrait Mode is an example of computational photography,” Attar said in an interview with the CXOTalk podcast. “It’s not something that could have existed before we had sufficient processing power.”
In 2019, Attar and former Apple colleague Dr. Tom Bishop left the company to establish Glass Imaging. The startup took a different approach, using AI at the hardware level rather than simply enhancing photos after they are captured.
“We want to revolutionize digital photography, particularly through AI,” Attar said. “It’s not about taking existing photos and enhancing them, that’s something many people are already doing. Our goal is to create hardware changes that are only possible thanks to the AI we are developing.”
Glass developed systems that comprehensively analyse camera optics and sensors, using large volumes of data to train neural networks that can run directly on smartphones. The technology can correct optical imperfections, sensor noise and other image defects, potentially allowing smaller and less sophisticated hardware to produce higher-quality images.
The acquisition could also support OpenAI’s work on AI-powered hardware with former Apple design chief Jony Ive. While the exact product remains unknown, advanced imaging could help compact AI devices understand their physical surroundings.
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