Communications of the ACM
Multimodal AI Connects the Digital Dots
By knitting together multiple components and data streams, multimodal AI offers the promise of smarter, more human-like systems… 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 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 News
Mobile Botnets Show Their Destructive Potential
Denial-of-services (DoS) attacks are a common tactic used by "black hats" intent on bringing down a high-profile Web site. Now Patrick Traynor of the Georgia Institute...
From ACM TechNews
Theme-Park Dummy Trick Becomes Teleconference Tool
A trick used in theme-park animatronics could help people act more naturally during videoconferences. Shader lamps is a technique that projects an animated face...
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
Living Wallpaper That Devices Can Relate To
The Living Wall project, led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab researcher Leah Buechley, features an electronically enhanced wallpaper that can...
From ACM TechNews
To Protect Your Privacy, Hand Over Your Data
A new proposal from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT's) Human Dynamics Laboratory suggests that digital identities would be more secure if they...
From ACM TechNews
Free-Flying Cyborg Insects Steered From a Distance
Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have connected electrodes and radio antennas to the nervous systems of beetles and then were able to control...
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
Augmented Reality Gets Off to a Wobbly Start
Although the iPhone can superimpose navigation routes or reviews on top of real-time images, augmented reality (AR) still has a long way to go. The iPhone's application...
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...
From ACM TechNews
Robots Get Smarter By Asking For Help
Willow Garage researchers are developing robots that ask human for help when they cannot recognize objects. Willow Garage computer scientist Alan Sorokin has designed...
From ACM TechNews
Super-Dense Data Stores Cool Down
Super-dense "millipede"-style data storage systems could be enabled to function at room temperature with the development of a material that becomes soft when placed...
From ACM News
Quantum Computers Are Coming
WHATEVER happened to quantum computers? A few years ago, it seemed, it was just a case of a tweak here, a fiddle there, and some kind of number-crunching Godzilla...
From ACM TechNews
Electronics 'Missing Link' nited With Rest of the Family
Memristors were identified by Hewlett-Packard (HP) as the missing link of electronics 18 months ago, and since then the same team of HP researchers has upgraded...
From ACM TechNews
Fly-By-Wireless Set For Take-Off
Aircraft manufacturers eager to reduce the weight of planes are looking into the replacement of copper wiring with wireless networks. Imbuing fly-by-wireless networks...
From ACM TechNews
Lobsters Teach Robots Magnetic Mapping Trick
Computer scientist Janne Haverinen reports that a small wheeled robot was able to use a magnetic map to determine where it was in a hospital and move along a corridor...
From ACM TechNews