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dateMore Than a Year Ago
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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


Touch Floors Could Be Next Step in Computer Interfaces
From ACM News

Touch Floors Could Be Next Step in Computer Interfaces

Imagine entering your living room and sliding your foot purposefully over a particular stretch of floor. Your hi-fi system springs to life, pumping out the sounds...

Can We Make a Conscious Machine?
From ACM News

Can We Make a Conscious Machine?

Challenges don't get much bigger than trying to create artificial consciousness. Some doubt if it can be done--or if it ever should. Bolder researchers are notAntonio...

From ACM News

Are Machines Ready to Break Down Language Barriers?

Even in an era of global networks and cheap travel, international communication still faces one great barrier: we don't all speak the same language. But that gap...

From ACM TechNews

Boring Conversation? Let Your Computer Listen For You

Researchers are developing software that can make conversing with a computer more productive. Existing automatic speech recognition technology is unreliable. 

From ACM News

Cellphone Traces Reveal You're So Predictable

We may all like to consider ourselves free spirits. But a study of the traces left by 50,000 cellphone users over three months has conclusively proved otherwise...

From ACM News

Typos May Earn Google $500m a Year

Google may be earning $500 million a year via companies and individuals who register deceptive Web site addresses. The claim centers on a controversial scheme known...

­.s. Networks and Power Grid ­nder (mock) Cyber-Attack
From ACM News

­.s. Networks and Power Grid ­nder (mock) Cyber-Attack

Unknown hackers have taken out U.S. cellphone networks in an ongoing cyber-attack that will soon knock out parts of the nation's electricity grid – say the officials...

Smart Dust Could Give Early Warning of Space Storms
From ACM News

Smart Dust Could Give Early Warning of Space Storms

A SWARM of "smart dust" spacecraft, positioned at a sweet spot between the Earth and the sun, could alert us to the approach of dangerous space storms well before...

Unplugged: Goodbye Cables, Hello Energy Beams
From ACM News

Unplugged: Goodbye Cables, Hello Energy Beams

LET'S face it: power cables are unsightly dust-traps. PCs, TVs and music players are becoming slicker every year, but the nest of vipers in the corner of everyAn...

From ACM News

Touchscreen Merges the Real and Digital Worlds

For all the advances in table-top and tablet computing, some design professionals will always prefer the feel of pen on paper to stylus on glass. A new device could...

From ACM News

Microsoft's Body-Sensing, Button-Busting Controller

A LONG-lived videogaming skill could be on the way out this year as Microsoft hones an add-on to its Xbox 360 console aimed at making button-studded games controllers...

Motion-Sensing Phones That Predict Your Every Move
From ACM TechNews

Motion-Sensing Phones That Predict Your Every Move

Technical University of Delft researchers have developed a smartphone program that learns users' behavior patterns to provide better cell phone service. The program...

Smart Cctv Learns to Spot Suspicious Types
From ACM TechNews

Smart Cctv Learns to Spot Suspicious Types

An international team of computer scientists at Queen Mary, University of London are developing intelligent video-surveillance software designed to spot suspicious...

From ACM TechNews

Proper ­se of English Could Get a Virus Past Security

Johns Hopkins University security researcher Josh Mason says hackers could potentially evade most existing antivirus programs by hiding malicious code within ordinary...

Medibots: The World's Smallest Surgeons
From ACM News

Medibots: The World's Smallest Surgeons

A man lies comatose on an operating table. The enormous spider that hangs above him has plunged four appendages into his belly. The spider, made of white steel,...

Triple Shadows and Fake Reflections: Future Graphics
From ACM TechNews

Triple Shadows and Fake Reflections: Future Graphics

At the second annual ACM SIGGRAPH Asia conference, which takes place December 16-19 in Yokohama, Japan, computer graphics professionals and researchers will demonstrate...

Virtual Crashes and Clatters Get Real
From ACM News

Virtual Crashes and Clatters Get Real

The clatter of a dropped trash can and the crash of a cymbal – both easily recognisable sounds. That's why computer games or CGI movies that feature such noises...

From ACM TechNews

Computer Detects Abuse Before Doctors

Ben Reis at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School led a research team that developed software that could spot warning signs of domestic abuse. 

Aid Agencies Turn to Open-Source Software
From ACM TechNews

Aid Agencies Turn to Open-Source Software

Wesleyan University and Trinity College students have developed Collabbit, software that acts as a virtual emergency response center. Collabbit serves as a central...

Locust Flight Simulator Helps Robot Insects Evolve
From ACM TechNews

Locust Flight Simulator Helps Robot Insects Evolve

A team at the University of Oxford has built a computer model of the wing motion of a locust, and says the surface structures of the wings are key to generating...
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