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
Robotics Insights Through Flies' Eyes
Researchers at the Munich-based Cognition for Technical Systems excellence cluster have developed a flight simulator for flies to determine the insect's neural...
From ACM TechNews
Nurses Open to Idea of Robots
A study performed by SINTEF for the Norwegian Association of Local Regional Authorities found that nurses and care-sector employees would welcome sensor and robot...
From ACM TechNews
Talking Paperclip Inspires Less Irksome Virtual Assistant
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has spent an estimated $150 million developing an artificially intelligent (AI) virtual assistant. DARPA's...
From ACM TechNews
Cambridge niversity Builds Lamppost-Mounted Traffic-Counting Sensors
Sensors would offer traffic authorities a better way to measure traffic flow, according to a team at the University of Cambridge. The researchers plan to mount...
From ACM News
Want Responsible Robotics? Start with Responsible Humans
When the legendary science fiction writer Isaac Asimov penned the "Three Laws of Responsible Robotics," he forever changed the way humans think about artificial...
From ACM TechNews
Smart Machines: What's The Worst That Could Happen?
A panel of 25 artificial intelligence (AI) scientists, roboticists, and ethical and legal scholars have spent the past year discussing the risks of developing machines...
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have spurred a group of computer scientists to consider whether research that might lead to a loss of human control over...
From ACM News
How Robot Drones Revolutionized the Face of Warfare
Today's warriors are fighting without getting in harm's way, with drones dramatically tilting the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan in favor of the United States...
From ACM TechNews
Robo-Ethicists Want to Revamp Asimov's 3 Laws
Researchers continue to work to make robots safer to be around humans, but some robot experts say the key is to stop making robots that lack ethics. "If you build...
From ACM TechNews
Future Cars Will Communicate to Avoid Collisions
The recent First Rim Mathematical Association (PRIMA) conference in Sydney featured a demonstration of how the flocking technique could be used to control cars....
From Communications of the ACM
Face Recognition Breakthrough
By using sparse representation and compressed sensing, researchers have been able to demonstrate significant improvements in accuracy over traditional face-recognition...
From Communications of the ACM
Just For You
Recommender systems that provide consumers with customized options have redefined e-commerce, and are spreading to other fields.
From ACM TechNews
When Robots Invaded the Senate
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently held a luncheon briefing and open house for U.S. Senate members to demonstrate cyber-physical systems (CPS), an emerging...
From ACM TechNews
Rethinking Code Optimization For Mobile and Multicore
The key to the creation of more efficient software for mobile platforms and multicore chips could lie in artificial intelligence (AI), and the MilePost project...
From ACM News
Shape-Shifting Material Suggests Morphable Hardware
Electronic devices that can change their physical shape depending on the needs of the user might sound far-fetched. But recent research advances on several fronts...
From ACM TechNews
Cyborg Crickets Could Chirp at the Smell of Survivors
Research supported by the U.S. Pentagon is attempting to turn insects into search-and-rescue systems capable of locating trapped victims in earthquake rubble and...
From ACM TechNews
Japanese Scientists Aim to Create Robot-Insects
Japanese scientists are working to create insect-robot hybrids, including robot-moths capable of detecting drug stashes and robot-bees capable of navigating earthquake...
From ACM TechNews
Computer Learns Sign Language By Watching Tv
Software developed by researchers at the University of Oxford and the University of Leeds has autonomously determined the basics of sign language by watching TV...
From ACM TechNews
In Search For Intelligence, a Silicon Brain Twitches
Blue Brain is a supercomputer-powered software model designed to closely simulate the activity of a rat's neocortical column (NCC) in the hope of gaining insights...
From ACM TechNews