Communications of the ACM
An 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
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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.
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...
From ACM TechNews