June 2008 - Vol. 51 No. 6

June 2008 issue cover image

Features

Opinion Editorial pointers Jun 1 2008

Editorial Pointers

With this issue, we close one chapter in the evolving history of Communications and prepare to write another. Indeed, it is only fitting that a publication dedicated to chronicling how science and technology change our world take a look within to assess how best to recharge the editorial direction driven by those changes. The editorial […]

Diane Crawford

Computing Applications

News News track Jun 1 2008

Researchers at IBM Almaden Research Center have demonstrated the feasibility of a class of data storage called racetrack memory that combines the data storage of a magnetic hard disk with the speed and strength of flash memory at relatively low cost. Technology Review reports that, unlike flash, racetrack memory would not degrade over time. A […]

CACM Staff

Computing Applications

Opinion Forum Jun 1 2008

The theft scenario explored in "The Illusion of Security" (Mar. 2008) by David Wright et al. was realistic, with one exception, though it didn’t detract from the article’s conclusions. Wright et al. wrote: "A third driver, not so dissimilar from the first, is that the data thieves are also impelled by the profit motive." The […]

Computing Applications

Opinion Digital village Jun 1 2008

Boutique computer activity mining vs. personal privacy management.

Hal Berghel

Computing Applications

Practice Practical programmer Jun 1 2008

Software Design and the Monkey’s Brain

Attempting to capture the nature of software design.

Robert L. Glass

Computing Applications

Opinion Viewpoint Jun 1 2008

Give Me Information, Not Technology

Don't confuse technology with business solutions, focusing instead on what users value most---information.

Arik Ragowsky, Paul S. Licker, and David Gefen

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Organic user interfaces Jun 1 2008

Throughout the history of computing, developments in human-computer interaction (HCI) have often been preceded by breakthroughs in display and input technologies. The first use of a cathode ray tube (CRT) to display computer-generated (radar) data, in the Canadian DATAR [6] and MIT’s Whirlwind projects of the early 1950s, led to the development of the trackball […]

Roel Vertegaal and Ivan Poupyrev

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Research and Advances Organic user interfaces Jun 1 2008

The Tangible User Interface and its Evolution

Users sculpt and manipulate digital information throughsuch tangible media as clay, sand, and building models, coupled with underlying computation for design and analysis.

Hiroshi Ishii

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Organic user interfaces Jun 1 2008

Organic Interaction Technologies: From Stone to Skin

Interaction with computers can make use of our whole physical and even emotional selves, as demonstrated by such emerging systems as HoloWall, SmartSkin, and PreSense.

Jun Rekimoto

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Organic user interfaces Jun 1 2008

Emerging Display Technologies For Organic User Interfaces

The display as a rigid, rectangular matrix is giving way to more fluid notions: thin, flexible, tactile surfaces customized to form and space.

Elise Co and Nikita Pashenkov

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Organic user interfaces Jun 1 2008

Organic User Interfaces: Designing Computers in Any Way, Shape, or Form

Displays on real-world objects allow more realistic user interfaces.

David Holman and Roel Vertegaal

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Organic user interfaces Jun 1 2008

Sustainability Implications of Organic User Interface Technologies: An Inky Problem

The moment you decide sustainability is an issue with respect to interaction design and the design of interactive devices is the moment you realize how complex the business of deciding what to actually do about it is.

Eli Blevis

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Organic user interfaces Jun 1 2008

Designing Kinetic Interactions For Organic User Interfaces

Considering the future of kinetic design in user interfaces.

Amanda Parkes, Ivan Poupyrev, and Hiroshi Ishii

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Organic user interfaces Jun 1 2008

What Makes an Interface Feel Organic?

Movies can make us forget that we are sitting in a cinema among strangers, looking at images projected onto a wall. Instead, we feel as though we are observing real people in real situations and we become emotionally involved in the narrative. User interfaces can trigger a similar suspension of disbelief: we forget we are […]

Carsten Schwesig

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Organic user interfaces Jun 1 2008

Interactions with Proactive Architectural Spaces: the Muscle Projects

Developing structures as flexible networked information processors.

Kas Oosterhuis and Nimish Biloria

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Organic user interfaces Jun 1 2008

Dynamic Ferrofluid Sculpture: Organic Shape-Changing Art Forms

From ancient times, standing sculptures in Japan and elsewhere were made of materials such as clay, stone, wood, or metal. Materials were formed, modeled, modified, cut, and reshaped using processes appropriate for them, and the forms and textures of sculptures made from the materials did not change except by abrasion or surface corrosion. The invention […]

Sachiko Kodama

Computing Applications

Research and Advances Jun 1 2008

Information Accountability

With access control and encryption no longer capable of protecting privacy, laws and systems are needed that hold people accountable for the misuse of personal information, whether public or secret.

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Jun 1 2008

A Risk Profile of Offshore-Outsourced Development Projects

Even the best project management skills will not guarantee success in the complex world of offshore outsourcing.

Charalambos L. Iacovou and Robbie Nakatsu

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Research and Advances Jun 1 2008

Ubiquitous Access: On the Front Lines of Patient Care and Safety

UA initiatives help allay potentially fatal errors, improve patient safety, and boost overall quality of care.

Chon Abraham, Richard T. Watson, and Marie-Claude Boudreau

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Jun 1 2008

Outsourcing and the Decrease of IS Program Enrollment

Students must learn to accentuate the positive in order to eliminate the negative perceptions of career opportunities in IS.

Wayne Wei Huang, Jonathon Greene, and John Day

Computing Applications

Opinion Inside risks Jun 1 2008

Risks of Neglecting Infrastructure

The September 2006 column ("The Foresight Saga") discussed failures in critical infrastructures due to lack of foresight in backup and recovery facilities. This column considers some of the causes and effects of another common kind of missing foresight: inadequate infrastructure maintenance. Civilization and infrastructure are intimately intertwined. Rising civilizations build and benefit from their infrastructures […]

Jim Horning and Peter G. Neumann

Computing Applications

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