Specim
Finnish hyperspectral imaging instrument manufacturer founded 1995, headquartered in Oulu. Produces hyperspectral cameras for airborne, laboratory, industrial inline, and ground-based applications. Product lines span VNIR (FX10, FX17), full VNIR-SWIR (AisaFENIX, AisaIBIS), SWIR (FX50), and dedicated lines for industrial sorting and quality control. Specim is one of the three major commercial hyperspectral camera manufacturers alongside HySpex (Norway) and Headwall Photonics (US). For Earth observation it serves as an airborne and ground-based reference instrument, with AisaFENIX widely used for cal/val of spaceborne hyperspectral data.
Specim, Spectral Imaging Oy Ltd is a Finnish hyperspectral instrument manufacturer founded in Oulu in 1995 by three researchers from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The company commercialised push-broom hyperspectral imaging technology developed at VTT, establishing one of the earliest commercial hyperspectral camera product lines. Specim became part of the Konica Minolta Group in December 2020, acquired through Konica Minolta Sensing Europe BV, and continues to operate from its Oulu facilities under CEO Tapio Kallonen.
Specim's product range covers the full spectral span from the visible through thermal infrared, organised across five platform families. The FX Series (FX10, FX17, FX50) addresses industrial machine-vision applications, covering food quality inspection, plastics recycling, and pharmaceutical sorting, with compact form factors and high frame rates suited to inline conveyor deployment. The SX25, launched in September 2025, extends this with a high-resolution SWIR camera covering 960-2500 nm. The AFX Series (AFX10, AFX17) integrates camera, computer, and GNSS/IMU into compact all-in-one enclosures for drone-borne surveys, targeting precision agriculture and vegetation mapping. The Specim IQ is a portable push-broom camera for field use, with on-device processing and an app ecosystem, deployed in plant phenotyping, archaeological analysis, and food inspection.
For Earth observation research and calibration/validation, the Aisa airborne series is the primary platform. The AisaFENIX covers the full VNIR and SWIR spectrum (400-2500 nm) in a single continuous image using a dual-spectrograph optical design, and has been widely adopted by research institutions and survey companies as a reference instrument for airborne campaigns. The AisaIBIS, developed together with Forschungszentrum Juelich and known as Hyplant in the research community, served as the airborne demonstrator for the ESA FLEX (Fluorescence Explorer) mission from 2012, providing sun-induced fluorescence measurements over large areas as preparation for the spaceborne FLEX instrument. [^hyplant-esa] The AisaOWL extends coverage into the thermal infrared (7.7-12.3 um). Specim's direct space heritage is limited: the company is an airborne and ground-based instrument supplier, not a satellite sensor manufacturer. Its EO relevance is primarily through airborne reference instruments used in cal/val and science campaigns for spaceborne hyperspectral missions.
Markets served span food processing, plastic recycling, forestry, environmental monitoring, mining, precision agriculture, pharmaceuticals, cultural heritage, law enforcement, and defense. Software products include SpecimINSIGHT for data analysis, CaliGeo PRO for airborne georeferencing, and the Lumo SDK for integration development. [^specim-software]