Communications of the ACM
New York City Takes Aim at AI
The Big Apple fields an action plan for artificial intelligence.
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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Military
The Pentagon has spent decades and gazillions of dollars trying to build the perfect translation device. Now, its far-out research arm is looking at a new direction...
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'predator' Smart Camera Locks Onto, Tracks Anything
Zdenek Kalal’s Predator object-tracking software is almost uncanny. Show anything to its all-seeing camera eye, and it will quickly learn to recognize it and...
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Ancient Greek Computer Had Surprising Sun Tracker
The world's oldest astronomical calculator is famous for having intricate gear systems centuries ahead of their time. But new work shows the Antikythera mechanism...
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Attack Code for SCADA Vulnerabilities Released Online
The security of critical infrastructure is in the spotlight again this week after a researcher released attack code that can exploit several vulnerabilities found...
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Tiny 3-D-Printed Insect Robots Take Flight
A team of roboticists at Cornell University have created tiny flying robotic insects using 3-D printing. The flapping wings of the hovering robotic insects (known...
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Dissecting the Physics of Basketball Bank Shots
Here’s the scenario: You’re a college basketball player and your team is down by one. You’ve got a trip to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament on the line, but...
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Data as Art: 10 Striking Science Maps
The computer age triggered a seemingly endless stream of scientific data, but such incoming mountains of information come at a cost. The more data you amass,...
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The 'Panda' That Hates Farms: A Q&A With Google
Google's new update to its search engine addressed the growing complaint that low-quality content sites (derisively referred to as content farms) were ranked higher...
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Is the Navy Trying to Start the Robot Apocalypse?
Whenever the military rolls out a new robot program, folks like to joke about SkyNet or the Rise of the Machines. But this time, the military really is starting...
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Thinking Your Way Through Traffic in a Brain-Control Car
John Prine wasn’t far off when he sang in "Living In the Future" that "we're all driving rocket ships and talking with our minds." We're still waiting for our...
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DARPA
Perhaps you thought the four-legged BigDog robot wasn’t eerily lifelike enough. That'll change soon. BigDog's makers are working on a new quadruped that moves...
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The Secret World of Printing Concept Cars in 3D
The work that goes into building a physical model of a concept car is usually hidden behind closed doors, known only to engineers sworn to secrecy and similarly...
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Report: Stuxnet Hit 5 Gateway Targets on Its Way to Iranian Plant
Attackers behind the Stuxnet computer worm focused on targeting five organizations in Iran that they believed would get them to their final target in that country...
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Pentagon
In the past three years, America’s military and intelligence agencies have spent more than $125 million on computer models that are supposed to forecast political...
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.s. Has Secret Tools to Force Internet on Dictators
When Hosni Mubarak shut down Egypt’s internet and cellphone communications, it seemed that all U.S. officials could do was ask him politely to change his mind...
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No Easy Fixes as Internet Runs Out of Addresses
Like a prairie with no more vacant land to homestead or a hip area code with no more cellphone numbers, the pool of available numeric internet addresses has been...
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Report: Efforts to Secure Nation
The official government cybersecurity standards for the electric power grid fall far short of even the most basic security standards observed by noncritical industries...
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Hidden Fractals Suggest Answer to Ancient Math Problem
Researchers have found a fractal pattern underlying everyday math. In the process, they’ve discovered a way to calculate partition numbers, a challenge that’s...
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Intel Agency: Without Videogames, We
American intelligence analysts are biased, and therefore make lousy decisions—even the spooky agencies admit that. The spy guys’ new hope for introducing some...
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