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The multimedia watermarking techniques are evolved very quickly in the last years with the increase in the use of internet. The evolution of the internet makes the copyright issues very important and many different approaches are appeared to protect the digital content. On the other hand, holography is the method to store the 3-D information of an object but it is very applicable to use as a watermark because of the nature of the holographic data. The 3-D object can be reconstructed from the hologram even if the hologram is cropped or occluded. However, watermarking of an image with a hologram is a very novel approach and there are only a few works in the literature which are not very robust against the attacks like filtering or compression. In this thesis, we propose to embed the phase of the hologram to an image using quantization index modulation (QIM). QIM is utilized to make the watermarking scheme blind and degrade the host image as low as possible. The robustness of the proposed technique is also tested against several attacks such as filtering, compression, etc. The evaluated performance of this system is compared with the existing methods in the literature which uses either holograms or logos as the secret mark. Furthermore, the characteristics of the holograms are investigated and the findings about the hologram compression are reported in this work.

This thesis describes an electrically thin surface used for electromagnetic applications in the microwave regime. The surface is free-standing and its primary purpose is to modify the phase distribution, or the phase and amplitude distribution of electromagnetic fields propagating through it: it is called phase shifting surface (PSS) in the first case, and phase and amplitude shifting surface (PASS) in the second case. For practical applications, the surface typically comprises three or four layers of metallic patterns spaced by dielectric layers. The patterns of the metallic layers are designed to locally alter the phase (and amplitude in the case of the PASS) of an incoming wave to a prescribed set of desired values for the outgoing wave. The PSS/PASS takes advantage of the reactive coupling by closely spacing of the metallic layers, which results in a larger phase shift range while keeping the structure significantly thin. The PSS concept is used to design components such as gratings and lens antennas which are presented in this document. The components are designed for an operating frequency of 30 GHz. The PSS phase grating gives high diffraction efficiency, even higher than a dielectric phase grating. Several types of lens antennas are also presented, which show comparable performance to that of a conventional dielectric plano-hyperbolic lens antenna with similar parameters. The PASS concept is used in a beam shaping application in which a flat-topped beam antenna is designed. This work demonstrates the potential for realising thin, lightweight and low-cost antennas at Ka band, in particular for substituting higher-gain antenna technologies such as conventional dielectric shaped lens antennas.

This thesis describes an electrically thin surface used for electromagnetic applications in the microwave regime. The surface is free-standing and its primary purpose is to modify the phase distribution, or the phase and amplitude distribution of electromagnetic fields propagating through it: it is called phase shifting surface (PSS) in the first case, and phase and amplitude shifting surface (PASS) in the second case. For practical applications, the surface typically comprises three or four layers of metallic patterns spaced by dielectric layers. The patterns of the metallic layers are designed to locally alter the phase (and amplitude in the case of the PASS) of an incoming wave to a prescribed set of desired values for the outgoing wave. The PSS/PASS takes advantage of the reactive coupling by closely spacing of the metallic layers, which results in a larger phase shift range while keeping the structure significantly thin. The PSS concept is used to design components such as gratings and lens antennas which are presented in this document. The components are designed for an operating frequency of 30 GHz. The PSS phase grating gives high diffraction efficiency, even higher than a dielectric phase grating. Several types of lens antennas are also presented, which show comparable performance to that of a conventional dielectric plano-hyperbolic lens antenna with similar parameters. The PASS concept is used in a beam shaping application in which a flat-topped beam antenna is designed. This work demonstrates the potential for realising thin, lightweight and low-cost antennas at Ka band, in particular for substituting higher-gain antenna technologies such as conventional dielectric shaped lens antennas.

<p>In this thesis, controllers for power oscillation damping, transient stability improvement and power flow control by means of a Controlled Series Compensator (CSC) and and a Dynamic Power Flow Controller (DPFC) are proposed. These devices belong to the group of power system components referred to as Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices. The developed controllers use only quantities measured locally at the FACTS device as inputs, thereby avoiding the risk of interrupted communications associated with the use of remote signals for control.</p><p>For power systems with one dominating, poorly damped inter-area power oscillation mode, it is shown that a simple generic system model can be used as a basis for damping- and power flow control design. The model for control of CSC includes two synchronous machine models representing the two grid areas participating in the oscillation and three reactance variables, representing the interconnecting transmission lines and the FACTS device. The model for control of DPFC is of the same type but it also includes the phase shift of the internal phase-shifting transformer of the DPFC.</p><p>The key parameters of the generic grid models are adaptively set during the controller operation by estimation from the step responses in the FACTS line power to the changes in the line series reactance inserted by the FACTS device. The power oscillation damping controller is based on a time-discrete, non-linear approach which aims to damp the power oscillations and set the desired power flow on the FACTS line by means of two step changes in the line reactance separated in time by half an oscillation cycle.</p><p>A verification of the proposed controllers was done by means of digital simulations using power system models of different complexities. The CSC and DPFC controllers were shown to significantly improve the small-signal- and transient stability in one four-machine system of a type commonly used to study inter-area oscillations. The CSC controller was also tested for 18 different contingencies in a 23-machine system, resulting in an improvement in both the system transient stability and the damping of the critical oscillation mode. </p>

This thesis describes an electrically thin surface used for electromagnetic applications in the microwave regime. The surface is free-standing and its primary purpose is to modify the phase distribution, or the phase and amplitude distribution of electromagnetic fields propagating through it: it is called phase shifting surface (PSS) in the first case, and phase and amplitude shifting surface (PASS) in the second case. For practical applications, the surface typically comprises three or four layers of metallic patterns spaced by dielectric layers. The patterns of the metallic layers are designed to locally alter the phase (and amplitude in the case of the PASS) of an incoming wave to a prescribed set of desired values for the outgoing wave. The PSS/PASS takes advantage of the reactive coupling by closely spacing of the metallic layers, which results in a larger phase shift range while keeping the structure significantly thin. The PSS concept is used to design components such as gratings and lens antennas which are presented in this document. The components are designed for an operating frequency of 30 GHz. The PSS phase grating gives high diffraction efficiency, even higher than a dielectric phase grating. Several types of lens antennas are also presented, which show comparable performance to that of a conventional dielectric plano-hyperbolic lens antenna with similar parameters. The PASS concept is used in a beam shaping application in which a flat-topped beam antenna is designed. This work demonstrates the potential for realising thin, lightweight and low-cost antennas at Ka band, in particular for substituting higher-gain antenna technologies such as conventional dielectric shaped lens antennas.

This thesis studies different aspects of Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices which are used to improve the power transfer capability and increase the controllability in electric power systems. In the thesis, different aspects on the usage and control of Dynamic Power Flow Controllers (DPFC) and related FACTS devices are studied. The DPFC is a combination of a Phase Shifting Transformer (PST) and a Thyristor Switched Series Capacitor (TSSC)/Thyristor Switched Series Reactor (TSSR). The thesis proposes and studies a new method, the Ideal Phase-Shifter (IPS) method, for selection and rating of Power Flow Controllers (PFC) in a power grid. The IPS method, which is based on steady-state calculations, is proposed as a first step in the design process for a PFC. The method uses the Power controller plane, introduced by Brochu et al in 1999. The IPS method extends the usage of decoupling methods in the Power controller plane to a power system of arbitrary size. The IPS method was in the thesis used to compare the ratings of different PFC:s required to improve the power transfer capability in two test systems. The studied devices were here the PST, the TSSC/TSSR and the DPFC. The thesis treats control of ideal Controlled Series Capacitors (CSC), TCSC, TSSC/TSSR, and DPFC. The goals of the FACTS controllers which are developed are Power Oscillation Damping (POD), fast power flow control, and transient stability improvement in the power system. New adaptive control strategies for POD and power flow control are proposed and studied in different models of power systems by time-domain simulations. A strategy for transient stability improvement is also proposed and studied. Additionally, different methods for study of Subsynchronous Resonance (SSR), which is associated with series compensation in power systems, are investigated. Here, four of the most common methods for frequency scanning to determine the electrical damping of subsynchronous oscillations in a power grid are studied. The study reveals significant differences of the electrical damping estimates of the studied standard methods when applied to a four-machine test system. / QC 20110819

Ces travaux concernent l’étude expérimentale des textures se développant dans les ménisques de films smectiques de cristaux liquides thermotropes. Ces fluides complexes nous servent de système modèle pour l’étude des couplages élasto-capillaires qui se manifestent dans certaines conditions par des déformations périodiques de l’interface cristal liquide-air. Dans un premier temps, à partir de l’étude détaillée de la topographie de l’interface par une méthode interférométrique, nous caractérisons les différents types de structures, puis, identifions les principaux paramètres impliqués dans le processus d'apparition des défauts dans le ménisque de films libres suspendus. Ces résultats nous servent de base pour discuter des mécanismes physiques qui génèrent les différents types de défauts observés. Nous regardons en particulier, comment la diminution d’épaisseur de couche associée à une transition de phase va induire une instabilité mécanique responsable de l’apparition des ondulations de l’interface. Dans un deuxième temps, afin d’aller plus loin dans la compréhension des mécanismes, nous avons utilisé des films minces de cristaux liquides déposés sur des substrats solides microstructurés par des plots fabriqués par des techniques photolitographiques. Une telle géométrie permet de générer un ménisque autour de chaque plot et surtout de faire varier un plus grand nombre de paramètres comme par exemple l’ancrage sur le substrat via un traitement chimique de surface. L’ensemble de nos résultats apportent un éclairage nouveau sur la caractérisation et la compréhension des déformations spécifiques aux ménisques de fluides complexes. / The present work is an experimental study of the textures that appear in the meniscus of free standing smectic films with thermotropic liquid crystals. These complex fluids serve as model systems to investigate elasto-capillary phenomena which, under certain conditions, manifest themselves through periodic deformations of the liquid crystalair interface. In the first part of the thesis, we focus our attention on meniscus structures whose interfacial topographies are thoroughly characterized thanks to an in-house optical interferometry technique. Our study allows us to identify the main parameters involved in the development of meniscus structures and to discuss the physical mechanisms that are likely to be responsible for their formation. In particular, we show how a phase transition-induced layer shrinkage triggers a mechanical instability leading to interfacial undulations of the smectic free surface. In the second part of the manuscript, we address the case of thin liquid crystal films deposited on solid patterned solid substrates. The latter consist of regular arrays of microposts fabricated through photolithographic techniques. Such a geometry allows a meniscus to be formed around each micropost and makes it possible to examine the influence of other parameters such as the anchoring conditions on the solid substrate. The results gathered so far are able to shed some light on the characterization and the understanding of the specific deformations and textures that appear in the menisci of complex fluids.

Le travail présenté dans cette thèse porte sur l'inspection de surfaces métalliques industrielles. Nous proposons de généraliser des méthodes de l'imagerie hyperspectrale à des données multimodales comme des images optiques multi-canales, et des images thermographiques multi-temporelles. Dans la première application, les cubes de données sont construits à partir d'images multi-composantes pour détecter des défauts de surface. Les meilleures performances sont obtenues avec les éclairages multi-longueurs d'ondes dans le visible et le proche IR, et la détection du défaut en utilisant l'angle spectral, avec le spectre moyen comme référence. La deuxième application concerne l'utilisation de l'imagerie thermique pour l'inspection de pièces métalliques nucléaires afin de détecter des défauts de surface et sub-surface. Une approche 1D est proposée, basée sur l'utilisation du kurtosis pour sélectionner la composante principale parmi les premières obtenues après réduction des données avec l’ACP. La méthode proposée donne de bonnes performances avec des données non-bruitées et homogènes, cependant la SVD avec les algorithmes de détection d'anomalies est très robuste aux perturbations. Finalement, une approche, basée sur les techniques d'analyse de franges et la lumière structurée est présentée, dans le but d'inspecter des surfaces métalliques à forme libre. Après avoir déterminé les paramètres décrivant les modèles de franges sinusoïdaux, l'approche proposée consiste à projeter une liste de motifs déphasés et à calculer l'image de phase des motifs enregistrés. La localisation des défauts est basée sur la détection et l'analyse des franges dans les images de phase. / The work presented in this thesis deals with the quality control and inspection of industrial metallic surfaces. The purpose is the generalization and application of hyperspectral imagery methods for multimodal data such as multi-channel optical images and multi-temporal thermographic images. In the first application, data cubes are built from multi-component images to detect surface defects within flat metallic parts. The best performances are obtained with multi-wavelength illuminations in the visible and near infrared ranges, and detection using spectral angle mapper with mean spectrum as a reference. The second application turns on the use of thermography imaging for the inspection of nuclear metal components to detect surface and subsurface defects. A 1D approach is proposed based on using the kurtosis to select 1 principal component (PC) from the first PCs obtained after reducing the original data cube with the principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm. The proposed PCA-1PC method gives good performances with non-noisy and homogeneous data, and SVD with anomaly detection algorithms gives the most consistent results and is quite robust to perturbations such as inhomogeneous background. Finally, an approach based on fringe analysis and structured light techniques in case of deflectometric recordings is presented for the inspection of free-form metal surfaces. After determining the parameters describing the sinusoidal stripe patterns, the proposed approach consists in projecting a list of phase-shifted patterns and calculating the corresponding phase-images. Defect location is based on detecting and analyzing the stripes within the phase-images.

La mesure de la forme 3D du visage est une problématique qui attire de plus en plus de chercheurs et qui trouve son application dans des domaines divers tels que la biométrie, l’animation et la chirurgie faciale. Les solutions actuelles sont souvent basées sur des systèmes projecteur/caméra et utilisent de la lumière structurée pour compenser l’insuffisance de la texture faciale. L’information 3D est ensuite calculée en décodant la distorsion des patrons projetés sur le visage. Une des techniques les plus utilisées de la lumière structurée est la codification sinusoïdale par décalage de phase qui permet une numérisation 3D de résolution pixélique. Cette technique exige une étape de déroulement de phase, sensible à l’éclairage ambiant surtout quand le nombre de patrons projetés est limité. En plus, la projection de plusieurs patrons impacte le délai de numérisation et peut générer des artefacts surtout pour la capture d’un visage en mouvement. Une alternative aux approches projecteur-caméra consiste à estimer l’information 3D par appariement stéréo suivi par une triangulation optique. Cependant, le modèle calculé par cette technique est généralement non-dense et manque de précision. Des travaux récents proposent la super-résolution pour densifier et débruiter les images de profondeur. La super-résolution a été particulièrement proposée pour les caméras 3D TOF (Time-Of-Flight) qui fournissent des scans 3D très bruités. Ce travail de thèse propose une solution de numérisation 3D à faible coût avec un schéma de super-résolution spatio-temporelle. Elle utilise un système multi-caméra étalonné assisté par une source de projection non-étalonnée. Elle est particulièrement adaptée à la reconstruction 3D de visages, i.e. rapide et mobile. La solution proposée est une approche hybride qui associe la stéréovision et la codification sinusoïdale par décalage de phase, et qui non seulement profite de leurs avantages mais qui surmonte leurs faiblesses. Le schéma de la super-résolution proposé permet de corriger l’information 3D, de compléter la vue scannée du visage en traitant son aspect déformable. / 3D face measurement is increasingly demanded for many applications such as bio-metrics, animation and facial surgery. Current solutions often employ a structured light camera/projector device to overcome the relatively uniform appearance of skin. Depth in-formation is recovered by decoding patterns of the projected structured light. One of the most widely used structured-light coding is sinusoidal phase shifting which allows a 3Ddense resolution. Current solutions mostly utilize more than three phase-shifted sinusoidal patterns to recover the depth information, thus impacting the acquisition delay. They further require projector-camera calibration whose accuracy is crucial for phase to depth estimation step. Also, they need an unwrapping stage which is sensitive to ambient light, especially when the number of patterns decreases. An alternative to projector-camera systems consists of recovering depth information by stereovision using a multi-camera system. A stereo matching step finds correspondence between stereo images and the 3D information is obtained by optical triangulation. However, the model computed in this way generally is quite sparse. To up sample and denoise depth images, researchers looked into super-resolution techniques. Super-resolution was especially proposed for time-of-flight cameras which have very low data quality and a very high random noise. This thesis proposes a3D acquisition solution with a 3D space-time non-rigid super-resolution capability, using a calibrated multi-camera system coupled with a non calibrated projector device, which is particularly suited to 3D face scanning, i.e. rapid and easily movable. The proposed solution is a hybrid stereovision and phase-shifting approach, using two shifted patterns and a texture image, which not only takes advantage of the assets of stereovision and structured light but also overcomes their weaknesses. The super-resolution scheme involves a 3D non-rigid registration for 3D artifacts correction in the presence of small non-rigid deformations as facial expressions.