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Latest News News Archive Refine your search:
dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectHuman Computer Interaction
authorMIT News
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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


Squishy Robots
From ACM TechNews

Squishy Robots

A new phase-change material built from wax and foam, that is capable of switching between hard and soft states, could be used to construct inexpensive robots. 

Drone Lighting: Autonomous Vehicles Could Automatically Assume the Right Positions for Photographic Lighting
From ACM TechNews

Drone Lighting: Autonomous Vehicles Could Automatically Assume the Right Positions for Photographic Lighting

A team of researchers is developing algorithms to let photographers use camera-mounted controls to guide drone-mounted lights into just the right position. 

Bake Your Own Robot
From ACM News

Bake Your Own Robot

Printable robots—those that can be assembled from parts produced by 3-D printers—have long been a topic of research in the lab of Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna...

Glasses-Free 3D Projector
From ACM TechNews

Glasses-Free 3D Projector

Researchers have developed a glasses-free, multi-perspective, three-dimensional video screen.

Terahertz Imaging on the Cheap
From ACM News

Terahertz Imaging on the Cheap

Terahertz imaging, which is already familiar from airport security checkpoints, has a number of other promising applications—from explosives detection to collision...

Social Physics
From ACM TechNews

Social Physics

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab Human Dynamics Laboratory director Alex Pentland is working on a new theory of human social interaction. 

Self-Completing Programs
From ACM TechNews

Self-Completing Programs

The Sketch programming language enables programmers to leave out some coding details, with Sketch filling in the blanks. 

Smarter Caching
From ACM News

Smarter Caching

Computer chips keep getting faster because transistors keep getting smaller.

Seeing Things: A New Transparent Display System Could Provide Heads-up Data
From ACM News

Seeing Things: A New Transparent Display System Could Provide Heads-up Data

Transparent displays have a variety of potential applications—such as the ability to see navigation or dashboard information while looking through the windshield...

Marvin Minsky Honored For Lifetime Achievements in Artificial Intelligence
From ACM News

Marvin Minsky Honored For Lifetime Achievements in Artificial Intelligence

MIT Media Lab professor emeritus Marvin Minsky, 86, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, has won the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award...

New Approach to Vertex Connectivity Could Maximize Networks' Bandwidth
From ACM TechNews

New Approach to Vertex Connectivity Could Maximize Networks' Bandwidth

Researchers say they have developed a technique for addressing vertex-connectivity problems. 

New System Allows For High-Accuracy, Through-Wall, 3D Motion Tracking
From ACM News

New System Allows For High-Accuracy, Through-Wall, 3D Motion Tracking

Imagine playing a video game like Call of Duty or Battlefield and having the ability to lead your virtual army unit while moving freely throughout your house.

'wise Chisels': Art, Craftsmanship, and Power Tools
From ACM News

'wise Chisels': Art, Craftsmanship, and Power Tools

It's often easy to tell at a glance the difference between a mass-produced object and one that has been handcrafted: The handmade item is likely to have distinctive...

Surprisingly Simple Scheme for Self-Assembling Robots
From ACM TechNews

Surprisingly Simple Scheme for Self-Assembling Robots

M-Blocks are cube-shaped robots that can climb over and around one another, leap through the air, roll across the ground, and move while suspended upside down. 

Bringing 'common Sense' to Text Analytics
From ACM News

Bringing 'common Sense' to Text Analytics

Bringing "common sense" to artificial intelligence is one of the biggest challenges in computer science: It entails equipping computers with the shared knowledge...

Artificial-Intelligence Research Revives Its Old Ambitions
From ACM TechNews

Artificial-Intelligence Research Revives Its Old Ambitions

Artificial intelligence research has advanced significantly, but much work remains before computers can truly replicate or surpass human intelligence. 

Artificial-Intelligence Research Revives Its Old Ambitions
From ACM News

Artificial-Intelligence Research Revives Its Old Ambitions

The birth of artificial-intelligence research as an autonomous discipline is generally thought to have been the monthlong Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial...

Terramechanics Research Aims to Keep Mars Rovers Rolling
From ACM News

Terramechanics Research Aims to Keep Mars Rovers Rolling

In May 2009, the Mars rover Spirit cracked through a crusty layer of Martian topsoil, sinking into softer underlying sand.

Views You Can ­se? How Online Ratings Affect Your Judgment
From ACM News

Views You Can ­se? How Online Ratings Affect Your Judgment

Are you influenced by the opinions of other people—say, in the comments sections of websites?

Writing Programs Using Ordinary Language
From ACM News

Writing Programs Using Ordinary Language

In a pair of recent papers, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have demonstrated that, for a few specific tasks, it's...
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