Examensarbetet handlar om OCR (Optical Character Recognition). OCR-tekniken går utpå att konvertera inskannade bilder från maskinskriven eller handskriven text (siffror, bokstäver och symboler) till datorformat.Syftet med detta examensarbete är att utforska OCRs framtid och vilka användningsområden som finns idag för tekniken. Det intressanta är att se hur OCR klarar sig när mer och mer material är digitala.Genomförandet till detta examensarbete har gjorts med information från böcker, Internet,mejl och genom att tittat närmare på ett företag inom den grafiska branschen som använder sig av OCR, nämligen Aftonbladet. Jag har även testat ett OCR-program, ABBYYsFineReader 8 och gjort tester med några testteman, exempelvis matematiktest och olikatester på artiklar från några tidningar.Mina slutsatser är att OCR har en framtid men tekniken har en del förbättringsmöjligheter,exempelvis tolkning av handskrivna texter. OCR kan finnas kvar även när mer och mermaterial blir digitala om det integreras i befintliga tekniker, som i ett spam-filter för att tolka texten i bilden. Den nuvarande OCR-tekniken fungerar bra om materialet ärmaskinskrivet och i bra skick men den måste bli bättre på att tolka handskrivna texter för att kunna användas vid arkiveringsbehov av sådana texter. / My examination subject is about OCR (Optical Character Recognition). The idea of OCRtechnology is to convert scanned images of machine-printed or handwritten text (numerals, letters and symbols) into a computer-processable format.The purpose of my examination subject is to explore the future of OCR and why to use it today. It’s interesting to see if OCR survives when more and more material is digital.The implementations to the examination subject have been made from books, Internet, e-mail and I have discovered how a company in the graphic industry are using OCR, namely Aftonbladet.I have also tested an OCR-program, ABBYYs FineReader 8, and done some testing with some testthemes, for example mathematics test and different tests on articles from a few magazines.My conclusions are that OCR has a future but the technology needs some improvements, forexample interpreting handwritten texts. OCR can exist, even when more and more material is digital, if its integrated with existing technologies, for example with a spam-filter to interpret the text within in the picture. The current OCR-technology works fine with machine-printed material, and when the document quality is good. However it needs to be on handwritten text to be used forarchiving needs.

Massive graph visualization in an immersive environment, such as virtual reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR), has the possibility to improve users’ understanding when exploring data in new ways. To make the most of a visualization, such as this, requires interactive components that are fast enough to accommodate interactivity. By rendering the edges of the graph as shaded lines that imitate three‑dimensional (3D) lines or tubes, one can circumvent technical limitations. This method works well enough when using traditional two‑dimensional (2D) monitors, but representing tubes as flat lines in a virtual environment (VE) makes for a less immersive user experience as opposed to visualizing true 3D geometry. In order to accommodate for these requirements i.e., speed and visual fidelity, we need a time efficient way of producing tubular meshes. This thesis project explores how one can generate tubular geometry utilizing compute shaders in the modern game engine, Unreal Engine (UE). Exploiting the parallel computing power of the graphical processing unit (GPU) we use compute shaders to generate a tubular mesh following a predetermined path. The result from the project is an open source plugin for UE, able to generate tubular geometry at rapid rates. While not giving any major advantages when generating smaller models, comparing it to a sequential implementation, the compute shader implementation create and render models > 40× faster when generating 106 tube segments. A secondary effect of generating most of the data on the GPU, is that we avoid bottlenecks that can occur when surpassing the bandwidth of the central processing unit (CPU) to GPU data transfer. Using this tool researches can more easily explore information visualization in a VE. Furthermore, this thesis promotes extended development of mesh generation, using compute shaders in UE. / Att visualisera stora grafer i en immersiv miljö, såsom VR eller AR, kan förbättra en användares förståelse när de utforskar data på nya sätt. För att få ut det mesta av denna typen av visualiseringar krävs interaktiva komponenter som är tillräckligt snabba för att tillgodose interaktivitet. Genom att visa de linjer, som binder samman en grafs noder, som plana linjer som imiterar 3Dlinjer eller rör, kan man undvika att slå i det tak som tekniska begränsningar medför. Denna metoden är acceptabel vid användning av traditionella 2Dskärmar, men att representera rör som plana linjer i VE ger en mindre immersiv användarupplevelse, i kontrast till att visualisera sann 3D -geometri. För att tillgodose dessa krav dvs, tidseffektivitet och visuella kvaliteter, behöver vi ett effektivt sätt att producera 3D-linjer. Denna uppsats undersöker hur man kan generera rörformad geometri med hjälp av compute shaders i den moderna spelmotorn Unreal Engine (UE). Genom att använda compute shaders kan vi utnyttja den parallella beräkningskraften hos en GPU, kan vi generera ett rörformat mesh som följer en förutbestämd bana. Resultatet från projektet är ett open source-plugin för UE, som kan generera rörformad geometri i höga hastigheter. Även om det inte kan visas ge några större fördelar när man genererar mindre modeller, jämfört med en sekventiell implementering, skapar och renderar implementeringen av compute Shaders modeller > 40× snabbare, när de genererar 106 rörsegment. I och med att den större delen av datan skapas på GPU kan vi också undvika den flaskhals som kan uppstå när vi överskrider bandbredden mellan CPU och GPU. Med hjälp av verktyget som skapats i samband med denna uppsats kan människor lättare utforska informationsvisualisering i VE. Dessutom främjar denna uppsats utökad utveckling av mesh-generering med hjälp av compute shaders i UE.

Egg consumption in Sweden is very high, which means a lot of egg shells are thrown out. For example the average swede consumes about 350 eggs every year. In this thesis I have investigated how eggshells can be applied in new areas as a resource, and I want to inspire the reader and encourage them to rethink what is called waste. Is it really waste or a possible resource? The work began with literature search, interviews and a survey to understand people's views on eggshells. I have concluded that not a lot of people know what eggshells are made of, and what they are used for. In a literature search I came across many scientific articles on eggshells. According to King’ori (2011) eggshells are used as fertilizers, used in medicine, cosmetic surgery, and dental care, calcium supplements, in the food industry and in crafts. When eggshell is thrown as food waste it creates problems in recycling stations, the eggshell is like sediment and lies at the bottom of tanks and pipes. The recycling staff have to perform additional work when cleaning tanks and pipes as eggshells are like sediment and lay at the bottom. The staff have to manually shoot out eggshells with many other useful materials that could have been digested and become biogas. This is an exploratory thesis where I investigate the material eggshell through a material-driven design process to find new sustainable uses. I follow the material-driven design process method by Karana et al.( 2015) plus my own added steps during the process. Material driven design process is a process where designers use a material to find the attributes of the material. These are then presented in new contexts or already existing contexts, this means that the material on the existing product can be replaced. This differs from traditional design, where the material is chosen based on wanted attributes. This report will give you an understanding of the material-driven design process-method and how I have carried out a material-driven design process, to develop different material properties of eggshells. The report ends with a concluding discussion and presents new eggshell-based materials that I have produced in the form of a demonstrator. It is a book which has two different materials, a hard material and a paper material which are combined and put together with a steel thread. I will also share my knowledge about eggshells and what potential it has in the future.

Urban air mobility has gained increased attention in recent years due to the emergence of novel technologies. Several use cases within different industries exist. These services can substitute existing services as well as offering entirely new ones. Previous research has focused on novel technologies and changes needed to be made in order for the technology to be established in the market. However, non-technological aspects are lacking, specifically concerning suitable business models. Thus, the role of business models, and changes related to these, required for a commercialization of urban air mobility services constitutes a research gap and are of interest for further exploration. To understand how actors are changing their business models to commercialize urban air mobility three different case studies were conducted on three projects focusing on use cases connected to urban air mobility. Interviews were used as the primary data gathering method, and in total 13 were conducted. The theoretical STOF framework, which delimits the business model into four domains, was used to identify potential changes. The main results indicate important future actors in a commercialization, the degree of change of these actors and potential challenges for them. Due to the uncertainty of the role business models play in a commercialization of urban air mobility services, this thesis will contribute to bridging this research gap. Concrete changes are identified, as well as specific business model areas in need of more attention. Furthermore, the thesis contributes to the literature concerning challenges related to urban air mobility services, as well as suggesting how they can be handled. Finally, the thesis evaluates and explains how the STOF framework can be extended to new industries. / Urban air mobility har fått ökad uppmärksamhet de senaste åren på grund av uppkomsten av nya teknologier. Flera användningsområden inom olika branscher existerar. Dessa tjänster kan ersätta befintliga tjänster samt erbjuda helt nya. Tidigare forskning har främst fokuserat på nya teknologier och förändringar som behöver göras för att tekniken ska etableras på marknaden. Emellertid saknas aspekter som inte är teknologiska, särskilt lämpliga affärsmodeller. Därmed är inte affärsmodellens roll samt nödvändiga förändringar relaterade till den för en kommersialisering av urban air mobility tillräckligt belysta och är därför intressant för vidare forskning. För att förstå hur aktörer ändrar sina affärsmodeller för att kommersialisera urban air mobility genomfördes tre olika fallstudier på tre projekt som fokuserar på användningsområden kopplade till urban air mobility. Den teoretiska STOF modellen, som avgränsar affärsmodellen i fyra områden, användes för att identifiera potentiella förändringar för de olika projektaktörernas affärsmodeller. De främsta resultaten indikerar vilka de viktiga framtida aktörerna i en kommersialisering är, graden av affärsmodellsförändring för dem, samt potentiella utmaningar. På grund av osäkerheten kring vilken roll affärsmodeller har vid kommersialisering av tjänster relaterade till urban air mobility bidrar denna avhandling till att ytterligare belysa detta forskningsområde. Konkret identifierar avhandlingen nödvändiga affärsmodellsförändringar för de olika aktörerna, samt specifika områden inom affärsmodellen som behöver mer uppmärksamhet. Dessutom bidrar avhandlingen till forskningslitteraturen om utmaningar relaterade till urban air mobility tjänster, samt föreslår hur de kan hanteras. Slutligen utvärderar och förklarar avhandlingen hur STOF modellen kan utökas till fler branscher än internetbaserade tjänster.

’Netto-noll utsläpp’ i EU vid 2050 är ett av målen för att påskynda övergången från fossila bränslen till mer förnyelsebara och hållbara alternativ. Detta har däremot introducerat mer turbulens på elnäten. Ett av verktygen för att reglera och förbättra eldistributionen är stor-skaliga batterier, där litium-jon är den mest förekommande kemin. Men på grund av oro kring resursutbud och hopp om teknologidiversifiering har det påbörjat en sökning efter alternativ som kan användas i stället eller tillsammans med litium-jon batterier. Från en lång lista så har tre alternativ med hög potential identifierats. Dessa är nickel-vätgasbatteri, zink-brom flödesbatteri och järn-luftbatteri. Deras lämplighet undersöktes och diskuterades för flertalet användningsområden och för ett speciellt användarfall av Vattenfall. Slutsatsen var att utav de tre, så är det endast nickel-vätgas som kan förväntas vara ett bra alternativ för specifika fall, att zink-brom har få möjligheter att konkurrera och att järn-luft har väldigt hög potential men också många oklarheter som gör det svårt att förutspå dess utveckling. / With net-zero emissions set to be achieved in the EU by 2050, the transition from fossil-based energy sources to more renewable and green options are ever expanding. This puts a strain on the electricity grids because of the intermittent nature from these energy sources. To mitigate this battery systems are used, of which the lithium-ion battery is the most prevalent, and expected to only increase in use. However, material resource concerns and possible danger of over-reliance on one technology has opened for a search to find other alternatives that could be used instead or in conjunction with the battery. Out of a long list of batteries, the nickel-hydrogen battery, zinc-bromide flow battery and iron-air battery are three alternatives that have been identified to have potential. Their suitability was researched and discussed for various grid-applications. The result show that out of the three, it is only believed that the nickel-hydrogen battery have a definitive competitiveness, that the zinc bromide flow battery has few things going for it, and that the iron-air battery has large potential but just as large uncertainty surrounding its future. Lastly, a specific off-shore wind park case was investigated to see the practicality and competitiveness of the nickel-hydrogen battery compared to a specific lithium-ion chemistry.

There has been a rise in greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial revolution. Today the steel industry is one of the industries with the highest emissions of greenhouse gas and impact on the climate. To identify and handle the environmental impact from products and processes, industries can adapt a life cycle perspective, which enables the use of the life cycle assessment method. The purpose of this study was to examine how the result of a life cycle assessment can be used, communicated, and affect future decisions in a steel company, furthermore, to identify challenges and strengths with the method life cycle assessment.     This study was performed as a case study. The purpose of the study was answered by a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study's scientific approach was abductive which enabled the writers to go back and forth between theoretical and empirical research. Sources for data collection consisted of primary and secondary data. The primary data collection consisted of mapping the processes for two bars and one hollow bar, identification of product recipe for all products, gathering of data from the computer program GaBi, interviews and observations. Secondary data was collected from scientific articles and other published literature, which was used in the theoretical framework to support discussions and analysis regarding the study's research questions.     The results of the life cycle assessments showed that mining and processing of raw materials contributed with the greatest emissions of greenhouse gases. In the study's chapter for analysis and discussion the theory was set against the result, to examine which areas of uses, communication opportunities, challenges and strengths that were linked to the method life cycle assessment. The analysis of the theoretical framework and the result of the study showed that a life cycle assessment has many areas of use, the respondents, however, did not have knowledge of all of them. Regarding communication of a life cycle assessment, scientifical sources, other publications and the results from the interviews showed that life cycle assessments should be communicated, however, difficulties arose in finding sources that dealt with how the results should be communicated. It was evident from the study that the biggest challenge with the method life cycle assessment were the data collection phase and choice of demarcation. Strengths with the method were, among other, the opportunity to identify what measures to prioritize to lower greenhouse gas emissions and to strengthen the marketing credibility. The conclusion ends with a presentation of suggestions for improvements, the study’s restrictions and suggestions for future studies.