This report investigates the technical and economic viability of introducing a Near Field Communication (NFC) client system in a gym environment. The system aims to aid the customers with logging their workout, retrieving information regarding exercises as well as enhancing the attendance control for both staff and customers. To identify what information to be presented, the most important quality factors and what functionalities are most desired, an exploratory case study was conducted. The study showed that there is a discrepancy between the desire to log ones workout and actually doing it. Most people want to keep track of how they workout, but despite the wide variety of workout applications on the market, they choose not to use them. The main concern expressed was that the logging needs to be fast and easy, indicating that the existing apps do not fulfill the ease of use desired. The system presented in this report is coupled to the gym where NFC tags pair an exercise to its corresponding logger and information in the application. The ability for the gym to track its customers’ workout habits is a rare feature that provides several economic benefits such as targeted advertisement, better maintenance control and new customer services analyzing their workout. For the system to be effective the customers need to use the system and log their workout, therefore it needs to be supported by the major mobile platforms. To accommodate this a hybrid platform approach using PhoneGap was used. This approach allows for development in one language that translates into native embedded web applications. At the time of writing Apple’s latest models do include the hardware for NFC communication. However, it is not possible to develop a custom NFC application for iPhone yet. By adopting the hybrid approach there is no need to create a whole new app when they do release the rights to do so. In conclusion, the technical viability of the NFC based system comes with the tradeoffs of dealing with the lack of standards of a new technology and being early on the market with a new feature. This calls for some custom solutions, since each platform adopts their own way of NFC implementation, but is manageable. The economic aspects are tied to the use of the system where the ease of use is the key factor for the customers. The end user tests indicate that NFC provides that small advantage over traditional workout applications needed to make logging attractive.

M.Ing. (Electrical And Electronic Engineering) / Patient safety in healthcare is sometimes compromised due to medical and clerical errors. These errors can increase the operational cost of healthcare if not identified and rectified speedily. They can also result in misdiagnosis, wrong treatment options being provided to patients and in the worst case may result in fatalities. Healthcare errors in medication documentation, administration, and prescription can cause incorrect medicine administration and dosage instructions for patients. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest percentage (adults is 59% and youth is 70%) of literacy compared to other regions of the world sitting at (adults is 84% and youth is 89%). The challenge facing illiterate patients is that they can easily make the same mistakes and may not take their medication correctly. The application of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in healthcare has demonstrated some advantages of security, accuracy and effectiveness over other technologies. The availability of NFC in some smartphones has also encouraged the development of more applications. The main objective of this thesis is to present a solution using an Android based NFC application that enables a NFC enabled smartphone to read NFC tags placed on medication containers and be able to play the audio instructions to illiterate patients. Based on a comprehensive review of the literature on NFC applications in healthcare, this solution is the first of its kind. A set of experiments were done in an effort to understand the operation of NFC phones under different environments. The proposed application reads the NFC tag placed on the medicine container. The data read from the NFC tag is used to identify the audio file corresponding to the particular patient’s medicine instructions. If the audio instructions are not available, on the phone, it is fetched from a remote server database using an Internet connection. The application automatically plays the audio file to the patient. Three research hypotheses were tested and it was confirmed that (H1), modified NFC antenna can reduce the level of induced power in it; (H2), the NFC technology is faster and more accurate in reading tag code that Barcode technology reading the barcode; (H3), the NFC reading process of NFC tag code is not negatively affected by the amount of light in the environment it is operated in. The Barcode reading accuracy was 10% errors when operating in the environment with light brightness of 128000 lumens. When the light brightness was reduced to 8900 lumens, the Barcode accuracy errors increased to 45%.

Th is paper focuses on bridging the gap between the physical and digital world by creating a balance between performative (learned) interaction and transparent (direct-realism) interaction. The balance between these two types of interactions is also reminiscent of the balance between how people currently interact with digital objects and how people interact with physical objects.This paper does a deep review of the many ways designers, researchers, and even psychologists have studied interaction between the physical and digital world. The project started off with a literature review, the literature review consisted of four sections; a review of related papers and projects, discussion of related theories, my analysis of reviewed literature, and ended with the creation of design guidelines for Near-Field Communication (NFC) devices.The paper proceeds through a hands-on, iterative physical prototyping process in order to develop aprototype that allows our physical interactions to be supported digitally through the use of mobile computing. Wireless communication and metadata are used to create a physical interaction, which is both highly personalized and contextually based in a digital way. An interaction that supports our deeper understanding of the purpose of the interaction, and which also benefi ts from the availability of digital information, which is personal and contextual.Lastly a proposal for a fi nal design for a digital device that will allow the user to bridge the gap between the physical and digital world is described in this paper. This final design incorporates both my analysis of the reviewed projects, theories and literature, and the findings from two rounds of user testing with and iterative physical prototype. This is followed by overall conclusions and suggestions for future work.

Near Field Communication (NFC) är en teknik som möjliggjort utvecklingen av vardagliga betalningar med hjälp av mobiltelefonen. I Sverige är betalningar med NFC-tekniken i mobiltelefoner fortfarande i introduktionsfasen. För att denna teknik ska ha möjlighet att fungera som ett komplement till redan befintliga betallösningar, granskas därför möjligheten för NFC-teknik som betallösningsmetod med inriktning på säkerhetsaspekter. Syftet med uppsatsen är att granska säkerhetsaspekter för NFC-teknik som mobil betallösningsmetod samt analysera dessa aspekter för att få djupare kunskap för NFC-teknologins möjligheter. Kunskapen har erhållits genom en litteraturstudie samt kompletterande av en intervju för att få bredd i informationsbehandlingen. Resultatet av studien visar att NFC-teknologin som betallösningsmetod kan påverkas av ett antal säkerhetsaspekter. För att NFC-tekniken skall nå en bredd i marknaden måste flertalet aktörer samarbeta för en standardisering i användandet av tekniken. / Near Field Communication (NFC) is a technology that enables the development of payments using the mobile phone. In Sweden, payments with NFC technology in mobile phones are still in the introductory phase. To ensure that the proposed technology can be utilized as a complement to existing payment options, one must consider the safety aspects of said construct. In this thesis we will review the technology with a focus on safety aspects. The purpose of this thesis is to review the security aspects of NFC technology for mobile payment and analyze these aspects in order to gain deeper knowledge of NFC technology opportunities. The knowledge has been obtained through a literature review, complemented by an interview to get a wide knowledge about the information. The results of the study show that NFC technology as a payment option can be affected by a number of safety issues. To ensure a viable market share, operators utilizing NFC technology must cooperate to standardize the implementation.

Increasingly, goods and services are purchased over the Internet without any form of physical currency. This practice, often called e-commerce, offers sellers and buyers a convenient way to trade globally as no physical currency must change hands and buyers from anywhere in the world can browse online store fronts from around the globe. Nevertheless, many transactions still require a physical presence. For these sorts of transactions, a new technology called Near Field Communication has emerged to provide buyers with some of the conveniences of e-commerce while still allowing them to purchase goods locally. Near Field Communication (NFC), an evolution of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID), allows one electronic device to transmit short messages to another nearby device. A buyer can store his or her payment information on a tag and a cashier can retrieve that information with an appropriate reader. Advanced devices can store payment information for multiple credit and debit cards as well as gift cards and other credentials. By consolidating all of these payment forms into a single device, the buyer has fewer objects to carry with her. Further, proper implementation of such a device can offer increased security over plastic cards in the form of advanced encryption. Using a testing platform consisting of commercial, off-the-shelf components, this dissertation investigates the security of the NFC physical-layer protocols as well as the primary NFC security protocol, NFC-SEC. In addition, it analyzes a situation in which the NFC protocols appear to break, potentially compromising sensitive data. Finally, this dissertation provides a proof of security for the NFC-SEC-1 variation of NFC-SEC.

The master´s thesis project was performed in collaboration with the design and engineering company Eker Design from Fredrikstad in Norway, who is designing and developing flip cover NFC keyboards for smartphones. The new product idea is the full-sized NFC desktop keyboard for public institutions to offer to pupils, students or business people for instance. The thesis project is examining how such a product can be designed and should be designed in order to fit into its market and environment to meet the target group´s interest in order to be successful. With a human-centered design approach the project work was starting by the user and the market. The work consisted of analyzing and emphasizing with the market which mainly included the users, the competitors and the trends within a market analysis and a survey research. From the findings and insights of the research phase a design strategy and a business model for the new keyboard was created and communicated via a design brief. Different ideas and concepts were created, tested and presented via concept sketches along with mock-ups. The final concepts were evaluated via a concept evaluation in relation to the requirements of the business and user value. The final concept was developed and designed via the CAD software SolidWorks and the rendering software Keyshot. The design and development phase was focusing on functionality, usability, materials, surfaces, textures and the mechanical and technical solutions for the design. The result of this thesis project is named TRANSIT and is presenting how a collapsible desktop keyboard which is offering a NFC connection could look like and work to offer to people in public places such as libraries or universities and be as well be suitable for people to use at home. The TRANSIT keyboard is a simple and robust concept of a full-sized tactile keyboard which is offering a NFC connection as well as a Bluetooth connection for devices which do not support NFC yet. The design is aimed for smartphones and tablets and is offering a support which consists of an automated stand and a back plate which angle is adjustable step-less. The design allows to collapse stand, keyboard and back plate into a compact package which makes it easy to store and transport. Furthermore the design is providing a charging option for the smart device via energy harvesting or cable and has therefore internal batteries.   The project is ending with the final presentation of the physical model in scale 1:1. / Detta examensarbete genomfördes i samarbete med design och ingenjörsföretaget Eker design från Fredriksstad i Norge, som designar och utvecklar flipcover NFC tangentbord till smartphones. Den nya produktidén är ett fullstort stationärt NFC tangentbord för offentliga institutioner, tänkt att användas av till exempel elever, studenter eller affärsmänniskor. Detta examensarbete undersöker hur ovan nämnda produkt kan och bör designas för att passa dess målmarknad och möta målgruppens intresse för att bli framgångsrik. Med en Human-centered design approach, började projektet med att utgå från användaren och marknaden. Arbetet bestod i att analysera och empatisera med marknaden som huvudsakligen bestod av användare och konkurrenterna, samt att undersöka trender genom en marknadsundersökning. Med utgångspunkt från de insikter som uppkom genom projektets utforskningsfas, skapades en design strategi och en affärsmodell för det nya tangentbordet i form av en design brief. Olika idéer och koncept skapades, testades och presenterades via koncept skisser och mock-ups. Det slutgiltiga konceptet utvecklades och designades med hjälp av CAD programvaran SolidWorks och renderingsprogrammet Keyshot. Design och utvecklingsfasen fokuserade på funktionalitet, användbarhet, material, ytor, texturer och mekaniska och tekniska lösningar för designen. Den slutgiltiga produkten heter TRANSIT och visar på hur ett hopfällbart stationärt tangentbord som erbjuder en NFC-anslutning skulle kunna se ut och fungera för människor som arbetar på olika platser i det publika rummet, som på bibliotek eller universitet. Men även för privat användning i hem. TRANSIT tangentbordet är ett enkelt och robust koncept av ett fullstort taktilt tangentbord som erbjuder en NFC-koppling såväl som Bluetooth for enheter som ännu inte stöder NFC. Designen, som är riktad mot smartphones och tablets, har ett ställ som består av ett automatiskt stöd och en bakplatta med steglös justering. Designen gör att tangentbordet, stödet och bakplattan går att fälla ihop till ett kompakt paket som är enkelt att transportera och förvara. Dessutom erbjuds möjligheter att ladda smart-enheter via energi-skördning eller kabel då enheten har inbyggda batterier. Projektet avslutades med en slutpresentation av en fysisk modell i skala 1:1.

Today’s society is one where technological advances are made daily, which increases the need to stop and assess the risks against users’ integrity when integrating new technology in contemporary systems all the greater. We have taken two technologies, Near Field Communication and Certified Wireless USB, whose envisioned area of use is to be integrated into mobile phones, and evaluated what security threats are revealed for the respective technologies. The threats against security have been identified through research of the standards and existing reports for each technology. Practical experiments have not been conducted on account of us not having access to any equipment to run such trials. The result of our studies is indecisive; pitched against Certified Wireless USB’s rigorous and robust security measures, implemented on hardware level, Near Field Communication’s lack of any such security implementations shines all the brighter. The real difference can be traced to the philosophy behind the technologies – Certified Wireless USB can be perceived as a complete product, while Near Field Communication bears more resemblance to a tool. In order to safely use a tool, knowledge about its use is required, thus in order to securely use Near Field Communication we propose two solutions; secure channel and secure identification, which developers can implement on a software level. Furthermore, we suggest that the implementation of security should be based on an incremental model where the security measures are scaled up in direct correlation with the sensitivity of the information managed. Our results imply that Near Field Communication does not have the inherent security that it should have in order to be safely and securely integrated into any system as it is. Therefore, measures have to be taken in order to implement this technology securely on a software level. For Certified Wireless USB it implies that nothing further is needed to achieve a secure implementation as the only weakness it displays is against Side Channel attacks, which are so complicated (and require direct access to the system) that we have deemed them unlikely to be attempted.

The last few years has witnessed a fast growth in technological advancement which has led to the development of several consumer electronic devices for different purposes or functionalities. For convenience and efficiency, there is the need to bring together all the different functionalities of these devices into a single multipurpose device such as mobile phone with the help of NFC (near field communication) technology. The need for NFC technology in mobile devices is fast gaining popularity in some countries, especially with the successes recorded in some of the NFC pilot projects. The NFC enabled mobile device is very intuitive; works with already existing infrastructures (i.e. ISO/IEC 14443 smartcards and it readers), allows for multiple applications, has a high level of security and comes with unique and attractive features, such as the ability to serve as both reader and writer modes, etc. NFC standards are specified by NFC Forum and it has a well organised ecosystem. This thesis is focused on the potentials of NFC and how it is used as a multipurpose device.

The meeting and conference industry is very varied, and conference designers strive to optimise the resources used during an event or conference. During several years of working in the conference and meeting industry the author found that some tasks associated with meetings and conferences are still handled manually. It was from the experience of these sometimes labour-intensive tasks that the idea sprung to introduce computer support. This thesis describes the development of a prototype in a mobile environment using Near Field Communication (NFC) as an identification token for an attendee at a conference or meeting. The conference centre where the conference and meeting scenario incorporated in the developed prototype is gathered from the author’s current place of work. As the prototype is developed as proof-of-concept it is not complete and needs to be developed further in order to be of use for a conference designer. The gain in reduced work can in some cases be quite intuitive, and in some other cases needs to be analysed. During the development of the prototype the author gained new knowledge in how mobile operating systems (OS) can differ compared to developing for OS aimed for stationary computers. One key difference was that the OS could at any time close or pause the application in order to free or save resources, such as memory or power, this behaviour needs to be managed and taken into consideration when developing for mobile OS. The author also learned how to use NFC and develop applications using NFC with an attendee-driven approach, which is important as the meeting industry strives to reduce the use of resources by making it more attendee-driven. The main idea behind the attendee-driven approach is to shift the tasks that are normally handled by the arranger of the conference, over to the conference attendee, e.g, the conference attendee books his or her lecture online, reducing the need of staff at a reservation call center.

Utgångspunkten för denna uppsats är en förstudie om den trådlösa tekniken Near Field Communication (NFC), som vi författare genomförde via en enkät. Några av svaren på enkäten som berörde ämnet riskbeteende fick oss att undra varför respondenter svarade som de gjorde på vissa frågor, då detta kunde innebära att de tog en risk med personlig information. Detta ledde till att vi ville ta reda på varför och till vilken gräns personer är villiga att ta risker med ny teknik, men även vilka variabler som spelar in i deras beslut att använda eller inte använda ny teknik. Vårt tillvägagångssätt är en litteraturstudie för att förstå vad som menas med användbarhet, riskbeteende och pålitlighet samt hur dessa hänger ihop. Efter att vi bildat oss en uppfattning om dessa och fördjupat oss lite mer inom ämnena, så genomförde vi intervjuer för att se hur den information vi forskat fram förhöll sig till våra respondenter. Urvalet av de personer som intervjuades har varit ”bekvämlighetsurval”, alltså personer i vår närhet.  Resultatet pekar på att det finns en hel del förarbete att genomföra innan man lanserar ny teknik. Dessutom har upplevd pålitlighet till företaget stor betydelse. För att många personer ska ta till sig ny teknik krävs det information och en del tillit till företaget i fråga, detta för att personen ens ska börja använda tekniken.