Nokia Research Center

Background

Jukka Saarinen is a Distinguished Researcher at the Interaction core technology center of Nokia Research Center (NRC; Nokia's corporate research unit responsible for strategic and long-term research). Jukka joined Nokia in 2001 as Head of Laboratory. Before joining Nokia he worked as a professor at Tampere University of Technology, Senior Research Scientist at Academy of Finland and Research Scientist of IBM. Although Jukka has a strong background as a researcher, he has actively participated in renewing the organizational structures, developing the multimedia competencies, and futhering the academic cooperation of NRC. Jukka and his family live in Nokia, a neighboring town of the city of Tampere, Finland.

Research interests

Signal processing and pattern recognition
Adaptive and learning methods with applications
Speech-audio-video-graphics processing algorithms and implementations
Computer architectures for signal processing
Parallel processing algorithms and computing structures
Human-computer interaction
Statistical methods and modelling

Career

Education

1986: Master of Science (with honors), Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland
• Main subjects: Digital and computer architectures, telecommunications, software engineering

1989: Licentiate of Technology, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland
• Main subject: Digital and computer architectures

1991: Doctor of Technology, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland
• Main subject: Digital and computer architectures

2002, 2004, 2006: Nokia internal leadership courses

Summary of publications

• Theses: 3
• International journals and book chapters: 47
• International reviewed conference / symposium / workshop publications: 172
• Domestic conferences / seminars, technical reports, others: 39
• Full listing in the attached pdf file (20 pages): Publications

Courses and supervision of degrees

• 11 university courses
• Master of Science degrees: 114
• Licentiate of Technology degrees: 11
• Doctor of Technology degrees: 12

Leadership of academia projects (1995–2001)

• Academy of Finland projects: 8
• Tekes projects: 5
• EU projects: 1
• Direct industrial projects: 23
  

Company creation activities

• Minutor (Tampere, Finland, 2000)
• Coression (Tampere, Finland, 2000)
• Datactica established by Jukka's PhD students (Tampere, Finland)
• Currently no ownership or other connections with the companies

Results at Nokia (2001–)

Below you can find some achievements of the laboratories headed by Jukka Saarinen.

• Nokia Quality Awards:
  • • 2001, 1^st in the Research Category: AMR-WB Speech codec led by Janne Vainio
  • • 2002, 2^nd in the Research Category: SP-MIDI Format led by Matti Hämäläinen
  • • 2004, 1^st in the Research Category: 3D Graphics led by Kari Pulli
    
  • • 2005, 1^st in the Environmental Category: Decreasing environmental load of Li-ion batteries led by Pia Tanskanen
  • • 2005, 2^nd in the Research Category: Mobile Video Editor led by Fehmi Chebil
  • • 2006, 1^st in the Research Category: AVC Video Codec led by Jani Lainema
  • • 2006, 3^rd in the Environmental Category: Bioplastic phone cover led by Markku Heino
    

• Speech recognition system for embedded phone environment

• Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) and AMR Wideband (AMR-WB) speech and channel codecs for the GSM and 3GPP WCDMA standards (leading mobile speech coding technology; Nokia has a key role in the standardization)

• Contributing to the MPEG standardization in the development of the successor of MP3 (the AAC codec that became the choice of Apple for iTunes, and numerous operators for their music services)

• Leading the first Nokia-driven mobile Java standard, Java Mobile Media API (JSR-135)

• Driving the AMR-WB+ speech/audio codec into the 3GPP standards (streaming video and audio files on mobiles)

• Leading Scalable Polyphony MIDI (SP-MIDI), the synthetic audio standard for mobile devices (bringing polyphonic ringtones to mobiles)

• Contributing to the Visual Radio concept (Nokia multimedia device displays information about songs and performers that are aired in the radio)

• AVC video codec with H.264/AVC standardization (the most modern and famous video technology)

• Solutions for stereo widening and 3D audio (increasingly used in the handset products)

• Entertainment Audio Platform (a key module in Nokia's multimedia software platform)

• Nokia's own AAC encoder for use in the camcorder products and PC Suite, and later in the S60 software platform product

• Leading the M3G standardization (mobile 3D Graphics API for Java) and implementing it for all Nokia platforms

• Developing the advanced car hands-free accessory HF-6W, the first one utilizing the adaptive multimicrophone beamforming technology

• SMS dictation: The first Symbian SMS dictation demonstrator running on Nokia 6630 (engine + UI; user can dictate short SMS message with a user-friendly interface)

• Business card reader using the camera of mobile devices to read contact information into the phones

• Mobile video editor (developing, prototyping and evaluating the new editing features for video editor products)

• Voice Aid software, the first implementation of voice feedback for Nokia (eyes-free use of mobile core functions, voice feedback from the contact list and phone logs, number dialing using joystick or keypad; additionally voice feedback for voice mailbox)