Communications of the ACM
The Promise of Holographic Displays
The computational expense of creating three-dimensional images that can be viewed by all is just one factor holding them back… 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.
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'god Couldn't Do Faster': Rubik's Cube Mystery Solved
It has taken 15 years to get to this point, but it is now clear that every possible scrambled arrangement of the Rubik's cube can be solved in a maximum of 20...
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Perfecting Synthetic Sounds For Animated Worlds
If computers can generate the imagery in animated movies like Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me, why can't they also generate the sound effects to go with them?
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Shrewd Search Engines Know What You Want
For better or worse, search engines have become the gateway to the Web. They help users to find information, advertisers to sell products—they even help hackers...
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Crunching Cancer With Numbers
When Danny Hillis spent a day watching a top surgeon perform keyhole cancer surgery, he was left both exhilarated and depressed. The clinical precision with which...
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19th-Century Tech Makes a Smarter iPhone
Rarely has 19th-century technology stirred an audience of 21st-century technophiles as it did last week when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs revealed that the next-generation...
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Invisibility Cloaks and How to se Them
The "invisibility cloaks" being made in labs today can hide objects when viewed from a wide range of directions and in visible light--both considered implausible...
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Why Labs Love Gaming Hardware
Blasting zombies may seem to have little to do with serious research, but video game hardware is helping scientists in a variety of ways including helping them...
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Schrodinger's Cash: Minting Quantum Money
MIT researcher Scott Aaronson has brought quantum money a step closer to reality by outlining a computationally secure quantum money scheme founded on the type...
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Touch Floors Could Be Next Step in Computer Interfaces
Imagine entering your living room and sliding your foot purposefully over a particular stretch of floor. Your hi-fi system springs to life, pumping out the sounds...
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Look, No Hands: Cars That Drive Better Than You
With his jeans, white trainers and stripy top, Bob is every inch the well-dressed 6-year-old. He's standing in the middle of a hotel car park and, scarily, I'm...
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Cellphone Traces Reveal You're So Predictable
We may all like to consider ourselves free spirits. But a study of the traces left by 50,000 cellphone users over three months has conclusively proved otherwise...
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.s. Networks and Power Grid nder (mock) Cyber-Attack
Unknown hackers have taken out U.S. cellphone networks in an ongoing cyber-attack that will soon knock out parts of the nation's electricity grid – say the officials...
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Smart Dust Could Give Early Warning of Space Storms
A SWARM of "smart dust" spacecraft, positioned at a sweet spot between the Earth and the sun, could alert us to the approach of dangerous space storms well before...
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Unplugged: Goodbye Cables, Hello Energy Beams
LET'S face it: power cables are unsightly dust-traps. PCs, TVs and music players are becoming slicker every year, but the nest of vipers in the corner of everyAn...
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Touchscreen Merges the Real and Digital Worlds
For all the advances in table-top and tablet computing, some design professionals will always prefer the feel of pen on paper to stylus on glass. A new device could...
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Microsoft's Body-Sensing, Button-Busting Controller
A LONG-lived videogaming skill could be on the way out this year as Microsoft hones an add-on to its Xbox 360 console aimed at making button-studded games controllers...
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Paper Screens Could Provide Depth to Computer Display
Researchers have designed an inexpensive interface system that uses a ceiling-mounted projector and an infrared camera to detect the placement of objects on a horizontal...
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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,...
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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