Communications of the ACM
The Promise of Holographic Displays
The computational expense of creating three-dimensional images that can be viewed by all is just one factor holding them back… From ACM NewsAn edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM News
Vision System For Household Robots
For household robots ever to be practical, they'll need to be able to recognize the objects they're supposed to manipulate.
From ACM News
Detecting Gases Wirelessly and Cheaply
MIT chemists have devised a new way to wirelessly detect hazardous gases and environmental pollutants, using a simple sensor that can be read by a smartphone.
From ACM News
Where to Grab Space Debris
Objects in space tend to spin—and spin in a way that's totally different from the way they spin on earth.
From ACM News
Origami Robot Folds Itself p, Crawls Away
For years, a team of researchers at MIT and Harvard University has been working on origami robots—reconfigurable robots that would be able to fold themselves into...
From ACM Opinion
Harnessing the Speed of Light
The fields of data communication, fabrication, and ultrasound imaging share a common challenge when it comes to improving speed and efficiency: light's diffraction...
From ACM News
Researchers nveil Experimental 36-Core Chip
The more cores—or processing units—a computer chip has, the bigger the problem of communication between cores becomes.
From ACM News
Think Fast, Robot
One of the reasons we don't yet have self-driving cars and mini-helicopters delivering online purchases is that autonomous vehicles tend not to perform well under...
From ACM News
Bake Your Own Robot
Printable robots—those that can be assembled from parts produced by 3-D printers—have long been a topic of research in the lab of Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna...
From ACM News
Terahertz Imaging on the Cheap
Terahertz imaging, which is already familiar from airport security checkpoints, has a number of other promising applications—from explosives detection to collision...
From ACM News
Computer System Automatically Solves Word Problems
Researchers in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, working with colleagues at the University of Washington, have developed a new computer...
From ACM News
Excitons Observed in Action for the First Time
A quasiparticle called an exciton—responsible for the transfer of energy within devices such as solar cells, LEDs, and semiconductor circuits—has been understood...
From ACM News
New 'switch' Could Power Quantum Computing
Using a laser to place individual rubidium atoms near the surface of a lattice of light, scientists at MIT and Harvard University have developed a new method for...
From ACM Opinion
The Complexonaut
When he was in elementary school, Scott Aaronson, like many mathematically precocious kids of his generation, dreamed of making his own video games.
From ACM News
Orienteering For Robots
Suppose you're trying to navigate an unfamiliar section of a big city, and you’re using a particular cluster of skyscrapers as a reference point.
From ACM News
Soft Robotic Fish Moves Like the Real Thing
Soft robots—which don’t just have soft exteriors but are also powered by fluid flowing through flexible channels—have become a sufficiently popular research topic...
From ACM News
Self-Completing Programs
Since he was a graduate student, Armando Solar-Lezama, an associate professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has been working...
From ACM News
Smarter Caching
Computer chips keep getting faster because transistors keep getting smaller.
From ACM News
Herding Robots
Writing a program to control a single autonomous robot navigating an uncertain environment with an erratic communication link is hard enough; write one for multiple...
From ACM News
Seeing Things: A New Transparent Display System Could Provide Heads-up Data
Transparent displays have a variety of potential applications—such as the ability to see navigation or dashboard information while looking through the windshield...
From ACM News