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
Microsoft's Glasses Monitor Blood Pressure
Smart glasses developed by Microsoft Research's Glabella Project can measure blood pressure noninvasively.
From ACM TechNews
How Paper Batteries Charged by Bacteria Could Power Internet of Things
A paper-based single-use battery harnesses bacteria to generate an electric current, and then to consume the battery after its use.
From ACM TechNews
A Twist in Graphene Could Make for Tunable Electronic Devices
Researchers have demonstrated proof of principle for a method of controlling graphene's rotation and the dynamic variance of its electrical, optical, and mechanical...
From ACM TechNews
All-Optical Computing Gets Another Arrow in Its Quiver
Researchers have developed all-optical logic gates from nanowires in a novel way, a significant step in the development of on-chip, all-optical logic components...
From ACM TechNews
World's Largest Robot Hauls Ore Through Western Australia
The world's largest robot is an autonomous train that hauls tons of material across Australia.
From ACM TechNews
Sprawling Wheel Leg Robot Crawls and Climbs
A sprawling robot at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel upgrades an earlier design's wheel-leg mobility so it can scale impediments.
From ACM TechNews
Popcorn-Driven Robotic Actuators
Cornell University researchers have devised ways for biodegradable robotic actuators to be powered by popping corn.
From ACM TechNews
Teaching Bipedal Robots to Step Across Discrete Terrain
Leveraging recent advances in optimal and nonlinear control systems, the University of California, Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated a bipedal...
From ACM News
A .S. Machine Recaptures the Supercomputing Crown
Today, U.S. supercomputer advocates are cheering, because for the first time since 2012, a U.S. supercomputer—Oak Ridge National Laboratory's newly installed ...
From ACM TechNews
Flying DRAGON Robot Transforms Itself to Squeeze Through Gaps
A new modular flying robot powered by ducted fans can change shape while in flight.
From ACM TechNews
Firefighting Robot Snake Flies on Jets of Water
Researchers in Japan have developed a firefighting snake-like robot with the body of a fire hose.
From ACM TechNews
Making Radio Chips for Hell
A new wireless radio mixer integrated circuit can operate at temperatures up to 500 degrees Celsius.
From ACM TechNews
Feel What This Robot Feels Through Tactile Expressions
Cornell University's Human-Robot Collaboration and Companionship Lab is developing a robot designed to explore textual communication.
From ACM News
Hiding Information in Plain Text
Computer scientists have now invented a way to hide secret messages in ordinary text by imperceptibly changing the shapes of letters.
From ACM News
Spying on a Storm's Infrasonic Signals to Improve Tornado Warnings
Tornado survivors often compare the terrifying, deafening roars of a twister's furious winds to the sound of a freight train. But storms also emit sounds that are...
From ACM TechNews
The Unhackable Envelope
Researchers have developed an envelope for hardware security modules that requires no battery and cannot be broken into without deleting its stored data.
From ACM TechNews
FlyJacket Lets You Control a Drone With Your Body
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne has developed an intuitive, wearable drone control system.
From ACM TechNews
Nanobots Glide Through Living Cells
Using small, rotating magnetic fields, researchers controlled nanomachines inside of living cells to trace the letters "N" and "M."
From ACM News
20 Entangled Qubits Bring the Quantum Computer Closer
In 1981, Richard Feynman suggested that a quantum computer might be able to simulate the evolution of quantum systems much better than classical computers. Except...
From ACM TechNews