The Snyder model is an example of noncommutative spacetime admitting a fundamental length scale $\beta${} and invariant under Lorentz transformations, that can be interpreted as a realization of the doubly special relativity axioms. Here, we consider its nonrelativistic counterpart, i.e. the Snyder model restricted to three-dimensional Euclidean space. We discuss the classical and the quantum mechanics of a free particle in this framework, and show that they strongly depend on the sign of a coupling constant $\lambda${}, appearing in the fundamental commutators and proportional to $\beta${}2. For example, if $\lambda${} is negative, momenta are bounded. On the contrary, for positive $\lambda${}, positions and areas are quantized. We also give the exact solution of the harmonic oscillator equations both in the classical and the quantum case, and show that its frequency is energy dependent.

We investigate the transformation laws of coordinates in generalizations of special relativity with two observer-independent scales. The request of covariance leads to simple formulas if one assumes noncanonical Poisson brackets, corresponding to noncommuting spacetime coordinates.

We discuss the recent proposal of implementing doubly special relativity in configuration space by means of Finsler geometry. Although this formalism leads to a consistent description of the dynamics of a particle, it does not seem to give a complete description of the physics. In particular, the Finsler line element is not invariant under the deformed Lorentz transformations of doubly special relativity. We study in detail some simple applications of the formalism.

We discuss the generalisation of the Snyder model that includes all possible deformations of the Heisenberg algebra compatible with Lorentz invariance and investigate its properties. We calculate perturbatively the law of addition of momenta and the star product in the general case. We also undertake the construction of a scalar field theory on these noncommutative spaces showing that the free theory is equivalent to the commutative one, like in other models of noncommutative QFT