This thesis deals with design and implementation of extension module that enables 2D scanning with single-point interferometer. Afterwards is here solved question of software, which output data can be visualized in ModalVIEW by ABSignal company. My work also contains an overview of LDV sensors and scan systems, which are used to laser beam steering.

Micro-assembly is of crucial importance in industry nowadays. Nevertheless, currently applied processes require improvements. Indeed, when dealing with the assembly of submillimetric components, usually neglected surface forces disturb the manipulation task. They are responsible for the component sticking to the gripper, because of downscaling laws. A promising strategy to tackle adhesion consists in working without contact. The present dissertation is focused on contactless handling with acoustic levitation.<p>The advantages of contactless handling, the physical principles suitable for levitation and their applications are detailed. The opportunity for new handling strategies are shown. Acoustic levitation appears as the most fitted principle for micro-assembly. The elements to model acoustic forces are analysed and performances of existing modellings are assessed. A general numerical model of acoustic forces is implemented and theoretically validated with literature benchmarks. A fully automated modular levitator prototype is designed and used to experimentally validate the implemented numerical model. Specific instrumentations and protocols are developed for the acoustic force measurements.<p>The numerical model is finally applied to the real levitator. Modelling results are used to support experimental observations: the optimisation of the levitator resonance, the influence of the reflector shape, the dynamical study of the component oscillations, the stability with lateral centring forces and rotation torques, the component insertion and extraction from the levitator, the effect of pressure harmonics on the acoustic forces, and the manipulation of non spherical components. Acoustic forces are experimentally measured and a very good agreement with the modellings is obtained. Consequently, the implemented simulation tool can successfully be applied to a complex manipulation task with a component of any shape in a real levitator. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

A progressive shift from cash and card –based in-store payments, towards contactless mobile payments, is currently in the making on the European market. This shift would imply payments in stores to be performed in a fast, simple, secure and preferably less costly manner, between a consumer´s mobile phone and a merchant´s payment terminal. Technologies such as Near Field Communication (NFC) and the use of Quick Response (QR) -codes, both facilitate such contactless payments, and have already built momentum in many European countries. This implies an undoubtedly very tempting new payment experience by the use of mobile phones. However, this shift entails several uncertainties and issues regarding the crystallization of the new “industry” that is forming. These issues regard social, organizational as well as market –related aspects, and adhere to stakeholders on both the provider- and user- side of contactless mobile payment products and services. It has been found that there is a great need for new research on this matter, from a more holistic perspective, where theories on industrial dynamics, developments and user adoption could be used to guide and explain these new industry-impeding issues as well as reveal new ones. This master thesis aims to answer this call – by using such theories in conjunction with a multi-stakeholder perspective from a wide base of empirically gathered data – in order to find, interpret and shed new light on key issues that impede the development and adoption of contactless mobile payments on the European market. It was deemed necessary to first conduct a thorough literature review on the current mobile payments landscape in Europe, in order to find out which key issues seem to be existent on the European market (adhering to both providers and users of mobile payment solution), with the intention to presuppose from those issues for further guidance of choices in theories and construction of empirical data gathering methodology. The theoretical framework was in such way built upon five different but highly interconnected theoretical concepts on new industry evolvement, strategy and adoption. The empirical data was gathered from a two-day conference on mobile payments in Europe, as well as from 10 in-depth interviews with different key stakeholders on the Swedish and European market. The theoretical framework and the empirical data was later merged for analysis purpose, in order to find, interpret and shed new light on these and other issues on contactless mobile payment development and adoption on the European market. This has led to some key findings or conclusions. Firstly, the literature review on the current mobile payments market in Europe revealed some key issues. On the provider-side of the stakeholder spectra; issues mainly revolve around collaboration and competition, where business models are hard to standardize due to the unevenly distributed control and power over the users. This was seen to relate heavily to the NFC Secure Element (SE) -placement, holding the consumers´ payment credentials, since different stakeholders prefer different SE -placements (on the SIM –card or integrated in the mobile phone). Some big actors have also created their own – more of end-to-end - contactless payment solutions, complicating the evolvement even further. This might further lead to issues related primarily to; early and late movers among providers, alternative mobile payment solutions, as well as issues related to interoperability between solutions/technologies as well as across borders. Security concerns have also been highlighted in the literature as a prioritized matter. Among the user-side of the stakeholder spectra; key issues relate to the adoption of in-store contactless mobile payments, such as investment costs for merchants to implement new hardware and/or software (terminals, mainly NFC -compatible), security concerns, reluctance in behavioral change among consumers´ payment habits, and uncertainties in the perceived added value through these new types of payments compared to foremost card payments. Secondly, after merging the theoretical framework with the empirical data for analysis purpose, it was revealed that the uncertain role of mobile network operators creates tensions in the ecosystem on various levels and to various extents. Secondly, preemption strategies utilized by indigenous firms in European countries shows the possibility of hampering payment interoperability, and first-movers risk hurting not only themselves, but the entire mobile payment ecosystem, if security breaches are discovered due to technological uncertainties. This is one strong reason for banks to move slower, but they mightcontradictively risk losing some of their high trustworthiness towards other stakeholders if being too passive. Moreover, two additional trade-off issues were discovered (technology/business model standardization versus innovation, and too many features in the provided offering versus too few features in the provided offering). The first of these trade-offs is further damaging for the ecosystem since there are strong differences in opinions on the matter, as well as what might increase adoption speed. The second trade-off is important to take into consideration where payment card penetration-rate is high. An additional factor carrying issues was the explicit focus of providers on only one side (consumers) in a two-sided market (consumers and merchants). Also, merchants can not be seen as a homogenous group. Finally, the “chicken and egg” –problem seem do not seem to be such a big of a problem after all.

Abstract Contactless mobile payments are a payment method done with a mobile phone and a contactless technology. Instead of paying with cash, a payment card or a cheque, a user can tap its mobile phone onto a terminal to pay. Across the globe, several markets have been embracing the need for new payment methods. In Asia, contactless mobile payments have been used since 2004. In some of the African countries, due to an insufficient banking industry, mobile payments have been the only electronic payment method. However, in Europe contactless mobile payments are still in their initial phase. The benefits of contactless mobile payments are that they are easier to use, faster and more secure. However, there are some implications. Firstly, the lack of standardisations regarding how the technology will work has led to an undefined ecosystem consisting of many stakeholders with different motives. Secondly, in order for contactless mobile payments to break significant ground the users need to change their existing payment methods and habits. This is a time consuming process, which will require consistency and patience. The research purpose of this thesis has been to define the contactless mobile payment ecosystem with its future potential on the European market. The research paradigm has been of an interpretive nature where the researchers’ interpretations on the information have been in focus. In order to answer the research purpose, an action research has been conducted, including an analysis the of Porter’s Five Forces model applied on the current contactless mobile payment ecosystem with its various stakeholders, the attendance at the annual NFC Congress in Austria as well as an experimental case study on Google. 3The findings of the action research have resulted in new definition of the current contactless mobile payment stakeholder ecosystem. In this new definition of the ecosystem, the user has been defined as the strongest force, hence has been placed in the centre encircled by mobile network operators, banks, merchants and transit authorities. In the ecosystem handset manufactures, operating system providers, technology vendors, cash handling organisations, card networks, POS terminal manufactures and governmental bodies have also been represented. The vision of the case study on Google has been to present a market entry strategy for how Google could enter the European market of contactless mobile payments. The research resulted in a proposition that Google would enter the market in the following order; the UK, France, Turkey, Russia, Germany, Spain and Italy. The conclusions of the research have been that contactless mobile payments will cut across an entire ecosystem, but that the ecosystem at the moment is not fully defined. To achieve a competitive position, a stakeholder has to deliver an outstanding user experience that is interoperable within the whole European market. Key­words: Contactless mobile payments, near field communication (NFC), mobile payment ecosystem, payment ecosystem, Google, Android

Background: Emerging in December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly changed consumer behaviour leading to social distancing and mitigating physical contact. Statistics show an increased use of contactless and mobile payment usage and adoption during the pandemic. It is unclear how valid previous models on mobile payment adoption explain adoption behaviour in emergency situations. While there are few studies approaching the adoption behaviour during the pandemic, there is also little previous research on mobile payment adoption prior to the pandemic in Germany. Purpose: The present thesis intends to advance several previously researched technological adoption frameworks to focus on and measure consumers’ perception of mobile payment technology adopting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, our model provides a basis to understand mobile payment adoption in Germany during the pandemic. Method: Based on hypotheses derived from an adapted UTAUT2 model, we conducted quantitative deductive research reaching 258 questionnaire participants based in Germany. The empirical data was analysed through structural equation modelling. Conclusion: The findings show that Performance Expectancy still represents the primary driver of intention to adopt mobile payments during the pandemic, yet it is strongly supported by the initially contextualised Contamination Avoidance element and complemented by Habit, Effort Expectancy. Practitioners benefit from the study to better tailor campaigns in accordance with the main driver of adoption behaviour, while our findings contribute new insights into technology adoption in Germany during emergency situations.

This dissertation work deals with the subject of a company in the area of e-commerce, which represents short-term or long-term plans in controlling the financial relationship toward the outer environment but also inside the company. The problem of possible abuse of credit cards is briefly analysed as well. The impulse for choosing this topic was increasing number of falsification and abusing of credit cards. When this subject is analysed in detail, the problem connected with lack of information on this particular area of crime inevitably appears. Clients of individual banking institutions often do not have even the basic knowledge about the ways their cards could be abused or misused. This is why the question of certain, at least minimal, basic information campaign done by the banks, which are supposed to protect the financial means of their clients. This dissertation work sets its goal in creating the methods of investigation of credit cards abuse not only in the Czech Republic but in the growing system of countries of Schengen Treaty and European Union. The benefit of the work can be seen in the level of theory as well of practice. The theoretical part of the work contains the analysis of the current situation of scientific knowledge in the area of information and communication technology of companies, which is implemented into information systems. Then the advantages and disadvantages connected with this kind of e-commerce are assessed and the specific opportunities for abuse of these media of payment are characterised. The problem sees mainly in writing a specialised publication, which would deal with the problem of abuse and falsification of credit cards and its possible use would be at police academies. Its main part should be the characteristics of particular forms of cards forging and also possible identification of these forgeries. This book could also help in prevention and inform clients of financial institutions about the ways of credit cards abuse. In the practical part, which concentrates on the Czech and foreign market, the author sets the basic premises for realisation of safe business of companies in the Czech Republic and its procedures. Furthermore the reasons of e-commerce abuse in the Czech Republic are analysed and results of quantification research presented. This was concentrated on ascertainment of reason of low interest in information among the public. In the conclusive part of the work the whole problem is summarised and there are also outlined perspectives and possibilities of further development

Manufacturing industry works on Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) to increase the yield and speed of machining. A good knowledge of the machine properties is important to increase the speed while still maintaining stable cutting with low tool usage.To make models of the machine is therefore important and in machining a common way to extract the dynamic properties is frequency response measurement. One way is to use an impact hammer to excite the machine tool and measure the response. The problem is that a hammer can only be used on a non running machine. At Manufacturing and Metrology Systems division at KTH (MMS) a test method for contactless excitation has been developed that uses electromagnets to excite the machine tool. By using contactless testing it can be used on rotating machine tools without real cutting in materials. In this thesis a new test system for the contact less testing method has been designed and constructed to test if it is possible to do test on a bigger variety of rotating cutting machine tools. The results for the prototype is presented and evaluated. / Dagens tillverkningsindustri arbetar för att utrsutningens totala effiktivitet ska höjas genomatt öka hastigheten och minska material- och verktygsanvändningen vid bearbetningen utan att minska kvalitén på slutprodukten. För att öka hastigheten krävs en god kännedom om maskinens egenskaper för att maskinen ska arbeta under stabila förhållanden där också verktygets slitage minskas. Att ta fram modeller över maskinen är därför viktigt och inom skärande bearbetning är frekvensresponsmätning ett sätt att få ut de dynamiska egenskaperna av det skärandeverktyget. En vanlig testmetod är att med en hammare exitera verktyget och mäta responsen. Problemet är dock att hammaren bara kan mäta vid stillastående maskin. Vid MMS har en testmetod för kontaktlös exitering tagits fram där elektromagneter användsför exiteringen. På så sätt kan testet utföras på roterande verktyg utan att man behöver förbruka material. I detta arbete har ett nytt testsystem för denna testmetod designats och konstruerats för att testa om det är möjligt med testning på flera storlekar på maskiner för skärandebearbetning. Resultaten för prototypen presenteras och utvärderas.

Smartwatch is a technological product that has rekindled a lot of interest worldwide and areseen to be connected to our day-to-day lives. The recent growth on the adoption of thesmartwatch has posed challenges to researchers and other interest groups. Humans now live inmodern scientific societies that are heavily reliant on numerous smart devices of which thesmartwatch is a part of it. Past research has been done on the smartwatch phenomenon and itsassociated question that surround it. In this paper, we seek answers to the vital questionsbordering the usage of smartwatch and how those factors that are responsible for the increasein adoption of the smartwatch . The grounded theory research designed was used as ourmethodological approach and data were collected from twenty participants, some living inSweden and some in Norway. Analysis of data is also based upon, and informed by, theguidelines of grounded theory data coding steps. Further open coding &amp; axial coding techniqueswere applied in data analysis section. Analysis of the data collected from the interviewsrevealed some interesting areas of smartwatch applications today. It also presented an insighton how consumers of smartwatch think about the product. Results from this study will be usefulfor future researchers as well as smartwatch merchants and makers.

Dans différents domaines industriels, la problématique du diagnostic prend une place importante. Ainsi, le contrôle d’aspect des composants optiques est une étape incontournable pour garantir leurs performances opérationnelles. La méthode conventionnelle de contrôle par un opérateur humain souffre de limitations importantes qui deviennent insurmontables pour certaines optiques hautes performances. Dans ce contexte, cette thèse traite de la conception d’un système automatique capable d’assurer le contrôle d’aspect. Premièrement, une étude des capteurs pouvant être mis en oeuvre par ce système est menée. Afin de satisfaire à des contraintes de temps de contrôle, la solution proposée utilise deux capteurs travaillant à des échelles différentes. Un de ces capteurs est basé sur la microscopie Nomarski ; nous présentons ce capteur ainsi qu’un ensemble de méthodes de traitement de l’image qui permettent, à partir des données fournies par celui-ci, de détecter les défauts et de déterminer la rugosité, de manière robuste et répétable. L’élaboration d’un prototype opérationnel, capable de contrôler des pièces optiques de taille limitée valide ces différentes techniques. Par ailleurs, le diagnostic des composants optiques nécessite une phase de classification. En effet, si les défauts permanents sont détectés, il en est de même pour de nombreux « faux » défauts (poussières, traces de nettoyage. . . ). Ce problème complexe est traité par un réseau de neurones artificiels de type MLP tirant partie d’une description invariante des défauts. Cette description, issue de la transformée de Fourier-Mellin est d’une dimension élevée qui peut poser des problèmes liés au « fléau de la dimension ». Afin de limiter ces effets néfastes, différentes techniques de réduction de dimension (Self Organizing Map, Curvilinear Component Analysis et Curvilinear Distance Analysis) sont étudiées. On montre d’une part que les techniques CCA et CDA sont plus performantes que SOM en termes de qualité de projection, et d’autre part qu’elles permettent d’utiliser des classifieurs de taille plus modeste, à performances égales. Enfin, un réseau de neurones modulaire utilisant des modèles locaux est proposé. Nous développons une nouvelle approche de décomposition des problèmes de classification, fondée sur le concept de dimension intrinsèque. Les groupes de données de dimensionnalité homogène obtenus ont un sens physique et permettent de réduire considérablement la phase d’apprentissage du classifieur tout en améliorant ses performances en généralisation / In various industrial fields, the problem of diagnosis is of great interest. For example, the check of surface imperfections on an optical device is necessary to guarantee its operational performances. The conventional control method, based on human expert visual inspection, suffers from limitations, which become critical for some high-performances components. In this context, this thesis deals with the design of an automatic system, able to carry out the diagnosis of appearance flaws. To fulfil the time constraints, the suggested solution uses two sensors working on different scales. We present one of them based on Normarski microscopy, and the image processing methods which allow, starting from issued data, to detect the defects and to determine roughness in a reliable way. The development of an operational prototype, able to check small optical components, validates the proposed techniques. The final diagnosis also requires a classification phase. Indeed, if the permanent defects are detected, many “false” defects (dust, cleaning marks. . . ) are emphasized as well. This complex problem is solved by a MLP Artificial Neural Network using an invariant description of the defects. This representation, resulting from the Fourier-Mellin transform, is a high dimensional vector, what implies some problems linked to the “curse of dimensionality”. In order to limit these harmful effects, various dimensionality reduction techniques (Self Organizing Map, Curvilinear Component Analysis and Curvilinear Distance Analysis) are investigated. On one hand we show that CCA and CDA are more powerful than SOM in terms of projection quality. On the other hand, these methods allow using more simple classifiers with equal performances. Finally, a modular neural network, which exploits local models, is developed. We proposed a new classification problems decomposition scheme, based on the intrinsic dimension concept. The obtained data clusters of homogeneous dimensionality have a physical meaning and permit to reduce significantly the training phase of the classifier, while improving its generalization performances

A formação dos monoalquil carbonatos (MACs) em meio aquoso - produzidos pela reação de um álcool e bicarbonato foi investigada por eletroforese capilar (CE) com detecção condutométrica sem contato (C4D). Foram estudadas ao todo 29 substâncias, das quais 25 apresentaram formação de adutos aniônicos monocarregados e 2 delas, adutos aniônicos com dupla carga. A eletroforese capilar proporcionou a obtenção de medidas de propriedades físico-químicas. Através do tempo de migração, foram obtidos mobilidade, coeficiente de difusão e raio iônico hidratado. Para os n-álcoois de 1 a 5 átomos de carbono, os adutos apresentaram raio iônico hidratado entre 216 pm e 310 pm. Os MACs têm raio iônico proporcional ao do álcool gerador, sendo sistematicamente maiores devidos à anexação do grupo carbonato. Quando comparado a ácidos carboxílicos de cadeia carbônica similar, os MACs possuem menor raio iônico hidratado. A obtenção dos valores da cinética de formação e hidrólise foi possível pela utilização de dupla detecção condutométrica, a qual permitia determinar a concentração do MAC em dois momentos diferentes ao longo da coluna. Devido à impossibilidade de uma calibração direta - já que os sais de MACs se decompõem em água - foi introduzida uma nova técnica de calibração que dispensa o uso de uma solução padrão do analito em favor de uma com espécie de mobilidade similar. As constantes cinética e termodinâmica foram comparadas com aquelas disponíveis na literatura, mostrando boa concordância, como no caso dos adutos para o metanol e etanol (a 25 ºC em meio aquoso), cujos valores da constante termodinâmica sugeridos pela literatura são de 3,57 e 1,80, respectivamente, enquanto que os valores calculados em nosso trabalho são de 4,2 e 2,3, a 25ºC. De forma similar ao ácido carbônico, os ácidos alquilcarbônicos (ACAs) se decompõem em meio ácido, o que dificulta a determinação da verdadeira constante de dissociação. Ainda assim, estudos em pH de 3 a 9, permitiram estimar os valores de pKa dos ácidos derivados de metanol, etanol e propanol como estando algo abaixo de 4, o que estaria em acordo com o valor de 3,6 do ácido carbônico. A formação de MACs também foi observada para dióis, como o etileno glicol e polióis, como o glicerol e manitol. Foi também possível observar, por eletroforese capilar, a formação de adutos aniônicos monovalentes para açúcares, tais como a sacarose, glicose e frutose. Por fim, a pesquisa revelou a possibilidade da formação de adutos com dupla carga - os bis(carbonatos) - para alguns dióis: o 1,4-butanodiol e o 1,6-hexanodiol. Esta é a primeira vez que estas espécies foram observadas. Estes resultados sugerem a formação de adutos aniônicos para várias outras classes de compostos, as quais possuam a hidroxila na cadeia carbônica. Embora, em meio predominantemente aquoso, estas espécies não estejam em alta concentração, trata-se de um novo conjunto de espécies a serem consideradas quando se trabalha em condições propícias. / The formation of monoalkyl carbonates (MACs) in aqueous medium - resulting from an alcohol and bicarbonate - was investigated by using capillary electrophoresis with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C4D). Twenty nine substances were studied. The mono-charged anionic adducts were observed for 25 of them and double-charged species were observed for 2. Capillary electrophoresis allowed us to obtain some physical-chemical properties. The migration time was used to calculate the ionic mobility, coefficient of diffusion, and hydrodynamic radius. The radii ranged from 216 to 310 pm for the adducts formed from the n-alcohols of 1 to 5 carbon atoms, respectively. The MACs have radii proportional to the size of the alcohol, being systematically greater because of the attached carbonate group. When compared to carboxylic acids of similar carbonic chain, the MACs have smaller radii. The calculation of the kinetic constants was possible due to the double C4D detection, which allows quantitation of the MAC at two different moments along the capillary. Due to the decomposition of the MAC salt in water, a direct quantitation was not possible. Thus an indirect calibration approach was introduced, where the analyte is substituted by a stable species of similar mobility. Good agreement was obtained between the kinetic and thermodynamic constants obtained by this method and those ones available in literature. For instance, the methanol and ethanol adducts were 4.2 and 2.3 (at 25 ºC), respectively, while the literature\'s values are 3.57 and 1.80. Similarly to carbonic acid, the alkyl carbonic acids (ACAs) decompose in acid medium, which impairs the determination of the dissociation constant. Even so, studies from pH between 3 and 9 allowed us to estimate that the pKa values of the adducts for methanol, ethanol, and propanol are somewhat below 4, which is in agreement with the value 3.6 for the carbonic acid. MACs were also observed for diols and polyols as well as for sugars. Finally, double-charged species bis(carbonates) were formed with 1,4-butanediol and 1,6-hexanediol. This is the first time that these species are reported. Although the concentrations of these species are not high in an aqueous medium, they form a new set of substance to be considered in aqueous solution when the conditions are favorable.