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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.


Security Missed Brussels Bombs–But Could Sensors Spot Them?
From ACM News

Security Missed Brussels Bombs–But Could Sensors Spot Them?

After terrorists attacked Paris last November, nearby Brussels, home of many of the attackers, posted heavily armed soldiers in public places.

Planet Nine Hunters Enlist Big Bang Telescopes and Saturn Probe
From ACM News

Planet Nine Hunters Enlist Big Bang Telescopes and Saturn Probe

The fate of an entire world is at stake. Astronomers are enlisting every telescope and space probe they can think of in the hunt for the solar system's potential...

Four Big Cosmology Secrets Gravitational Waves Could ­ncover
From ACM News

Four Big Cosmology Secrets Gravitational Waves Could ­ncover

On 11 February, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave observatory, or LIGO, announced it had spotted gravitational waves, the stretching and squeezing of...

Mind-Reading Tech Helps Beginners Quickly Learn to Play Bach
From ACM News

Mind-Reading Tech Helps Beginners Quickly Learn to Play Bach

Every potential virtuoso needs a mentor. It just so happens that this one is a computer.

3D-Printed Display Lets Blind People Explore Images By Touch
From ACM News

3D-Printed Display Lets Blind People Explore Images By Touch

Blind and partially sighted people often use tactile displays to interact with computers.

Google Deepmind AI Navigates a Doom-Like 3D Maze Just By Looking
From ACM News

Google Deepmind AI Navigates a Doom-Like 3D Maze Just By Looking

Google DeepMind just entered the 90s. Fresh off their success in playing the ancient game of Go, DeepMind’s latest artificial intelligence can navigate a 3D maze...

Virtual City Walkthroughs Help to Find Pedestrian Death Traps
From ACM TechNews

Virtual City Walkthroughs Help to Find Pedestrian Death Traps

Columbia University researchers are using home-built software to examine Google Street View images to identify locations in New York City where pedestrians are...

Glowing 4d-Printed Flowers Could Pave Way For Replacement Organs
From ACM News

Glowing 4d-Printed Flowers Could Pave Way For Replacement Organs

This delicate, glowing flower could one day save your life. It’s the latest example of "4D printing"–3D printed objects that change their shape over time—and it...

Philae Lander Fails to Respond to Last-Ditch Efforts to Wake It
From ACM News

Philae Lander Fails to Respond to Last-Ditch Efforts to Wake It

Farewell, Philae. The space lander that touched down on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (and in our hearts) in November 2014 has not responded to a last-ditch attempt...

Want a Computer That Never Crashes? Don't Let Bugs Freak It Out
From ACM TechNews

Want a Computer That Never Crashes? Don't Let Bugs Freak It Out

Developers' perception of software bugs must shift from something that must be found and removed at all costs to an unavoidable fact of life. 

IBM to Develop Hardware to Wipe Out Errors in Quantum Computing
From ACM News

IBM to Develop Hardware to Wipe Out Errors in Quantum Computing

The race to build a full-blown quantum computer is heating up.

Blood Gushes from Virtual Leg Injury to Help Train Combat Medics
From ACM News

Blood Gushes from Virtual Leg Injury to Help Train Combat Medics

If you're very squeamish, look away now.

Smart Glasses Translate Video Into Sound to Help the Blind See
From ACM News

Smart Glasses Translate Video Into Sound to Help the Blind See

Blind people have long relied on sound as a substitution for sight, and some even use echolocation to navigate around objects. But it turns out that sound can be...

Inside China's Plan to Give Every Citizen a Character Score
From ACM News

Inside China's Plan to Give Every Citizen a Character Score

Where you go, what you buy, who you know, how many points are on your driving licence, how your pupils rate you.

Activist Bots Recruit Humans to Their Cause on Twitter
From ACM TechNews

Activist Bots Recruit Humans to Their Cause on Twitter

The Botivist program uses Twitter to rally people to social causes, thanks to the efforts of Saiph Savage and colleagues at West Virginia University. 

Virtual Human Built from More Than 5,000 Slices of a Real Woman
From ACM News

Virtual Human Built from More Than 5,000 Slices of a Real Woman

She died two decades ago, but her body lives on in digital form.

Forget the Turing Test—there Are Better Ways of Judging AI
From ACM News

Forget the Turing Test—there Are Better Ways of Judging AI

Last Saturday I took part in a battle of wits at Bletchley Park, the stately home that housed the U.K.’s codebreakers during the second world war.

­nhackable Kernel Could Keep All Computers Safe from Cyberattack
From ACM News

­nhackable Kernel Could Keep All Computers Safe from Cyberattack

An autonomous helicopter gunship is flying over a military base in Arizona. Suddenly, officers on the ground lose radio contact: hackers have taken control of an...

Brain-Controlled Smart Home Lets You Turn the Tv On By Thinking
From ACM News

Brain-Controlled Smart Home Lets You Turn the Tv On By Thinking

Feeling cold? Your home already knows, and turns up the heat. Sick of the TV show you are watching? Your home changes the channel.

Can Software Suffer? Death and Pain in Digital Brains
From ACM TechNews

Can Software Suffer? Death and Pain in Digital Brains

The ability to digitally simulate physical systems such as the brain to avoid the ethical dilemmas of experimentation on living subjects creates new dilemmas.
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