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 TechNews
To Create a Robot With Common Sense, Mimic a Toddler
A new robot is being designed to mimic the common sense of a three-year-old.
From ACM News
Submarine Internet Cables Are a Gift For Spooks
It's a golden age for spying. The subsea fibre-optic cables that carry telephone and Internet traffic are a technological marvel—and a gift to intelligence agencies...
From ACM TechNews
Graffiti Codes Let You Surf With a Wave of Your Phone
Researchers want to enable people to create quick response (QR) codes on the spot, like graffiti.
From ACM TechNews
Robot Arm Wrapped in Sensitive Skin Has Gentle Touch
Researchers have developed a robot arm that navigates by using the sense of touch, rather than trying to avoid bumping into people and objects.
From ACM TechNews
Parcels Find Their Way to You Via the Crowd
A potential crowd-powered delivery system called TwedEx would deliver packages to consumers without requiring them to deviate from normal routes.
From ACM TechNews
AI Card Game Knows How to Bend the Rules
A new artificial intelligence system generates new card games from scratch.
From ACM TechNews
Crowd Diagnosis Could Spot Rare Diseases Doctors Miss
A new Web-based tool uses crowdsourcing techniques to help solve difficult medical cases.
From ACM TechNews
Virtual Traveller: Beam a Live, 3D You Into the World
A new virtual reality system combines 3D glasses and a hack of Microsoft's Kinect to enable life-sized images of people to be recreated in a virtual space.
From ACM TechNews
Wireless Smart Meter Measures How Much Power You Use
An inexpensive wireless device can monitor the power consumption of home appliances.
From ACM TechNews
Software Uses Linkedin Network to Guide Your Career
New software provides career guidance based on the profiles of LinkedIn users.
From ACM TechNews
How to Find the Right Twitter User in a Crisis
Researchers have developed a way to find people on Twitter who are tweeting useful information during a crisis.
From ACM News
Curiosity's Discoveries Hint at Life's Cradle on Mars
NASA's Curiosity rover has found what it was looking for in its very first taste of Martian rock—much to everyone's surprise.
From ACM TechNews
China's Next-Generation Internet Is a World-Beater
China is developing a next-generation national Internet that reportedly is on a larger scale than anything being developed in the West.
From ACM News
The Father of All Men Is 340,000 Years Old
Albert Perry carried a secret in his DNA: a Y chromosome so distinctive that it reveals new information about the origin of our species.
From ACM TechNews
Happy, Snappy Tweets Gain the Most Twitter Followers
The content of tweets, rather than a followers list, that has the biggest impact on the size of a Twitter audience, researchers have found.
From ACM TechNews
Crowds Prowl Google Street View to Speed Road Repairs
Software developed by a team at the University of Maryland at College Park makes use of crowdsourcing to report road problems to local governments.
From ACM TechNews
Why We're Building a 1-Billion Euro Model of a Human Brain
A 1-billion euro research prize will be dedicated to the Human Brain Project, aimed at recreating the human brain in a supercomputer to advance neuroscience.
From ACM TechNews
Robot Inquisition Keeps Witnesses on the Right Track
Researchers are developing robots to help solve the misinformation effect, remembering events differently depending on how one is asked.
From ACM News
Mapping Malware's Genome to Fight Future Attacks
Every year a computer worm emerges to stalk the Internet, each one seemingly bigger and badder than the last (see diagram).
From ACM News