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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.


Robots Look to the Cloud for Enlightenment
From ACM News

Robots Look to the Cloud for Enlightenment

With the phrase "web 2.0" falling out of vogue, the most exciting new uses of the internet are now all about the cloud, a term for servers invisibly doing smart...

Hand-Held Projector Images Respond to the Real World
From ACM TechNews

Hand-Held Projector Images Respond to the Real World

A prototype of a handheld projector created virtual characters that interacted with the real world at the recent Virtual Reality 2010 meeting in Waltham, MA.

From ACM News

Entangle Qubits for a True Random Number Machine

Pure randomness is surprisingly difficult to create, even if you draw on the inherent randomness of quantum mechanics. Now, though, a "true" random number generator...

Touch Floors Could Be Next Step in Computer Interfaces
From ACM News

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...

From ACM News

Visual Tricks Can Make Downloads Seem Quicker

Twiddling our thumbs while waiting for files to download is one of the great frustrations of our high-speed, technologically interconnected world. Computer scientists...

Diamond Chips to Make Meaner, Greener Electronics
From ACM TechNews

Diamond Chips to Make Meaner, Greener Electronics

Researchers at Japan's AIST have developed synthetic diamonds that could be used to make microchips capable of processing high-powered signals without requiring...

Can We Make a Conscious Machine?
From ACM News

Can We Make a Conscious Machine?

Challenges don't get much bigger than trying to create artificial consciousness. Some doubt if it can be done--or if it ever should. Bolder researchers are notAntonio...

Look, No Hands: Cars That Drive Better Than You
From ACM News

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...

Babbage Nanomachine Promises Low-Energy Computing
From ACM TechNews

Babbage Nanomachine Promises Low-Energy Computing

Boston University researchers have created a nanoscale mechanical logic gate that could form the basis of tiny mechanical computers, descendants of Babbage's mechanical...

Frank Moss: Tech to Help Those Who Can't Help Themselves
From ACM TechNews

Frank Moss: Tech to Help Those Who Can't Help Themselves

Frank Moss, head of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says there are real opportunities in developing technology for disabled or disadvantaged...

From ACM News

Are Machines Ready to Break Down Language Barriers?

Even in an era of global networks and cheap travel, international communication still faces one great barrier: we don't all speak the same language. But that gap...

Electronics 'Missing Link' Brings Neural Computing Closer
From ACM TechNews

Electronics 'Missing Link' Brings Neural Computing Closer

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Assistant Professor Wei Lu is leading a research effort to make brain-like computers using memristors. 

Human Arm Transmits Broadband
From ACM TechNews

Human Arm Transmits Broadband

Korea University researchers have developed a method for transmitting data at a rate of 10 megabits per second through a person's arm, between two electrodes on...

Amputees Could Get a Helping Hand in the Virtual World
From ACM News

Amputees Could Get a Helping Hand in the Virtual World

What is the best way to for someone to get used to their artificial limb? Put them in a virtual environment. So says Anthony Steed, a computer scientist at University...

From ACM TechNews

Sending Botnets the Way of Smallpox

University of Tulsa researchers have published a legal study on three "technically feasible" compulsory vaccination scenarios that governments could consider to...

Safety Issues Loom as Humanoid Invasion Approaches
From ACM TechNews

Safety Issues Loom as Humanoid Invasion Approaches

As robot technology advances, and their use puts them in closer contact with humans, safety has become a top priority for some researchers. 

From ACM News

For Smaller Chips, Borrow 18th-Century Tricks

A new take on a centuries-old printing technique could shrink silicon chips and lead to advances in ultra-high-density computer storage. Computer chips are made...

Body Acoustics Can Turn Your Arm Into a Touchscreen
From ACM TechNews

Body Acoustics Can Turn Your Arm Into a Touchscreen

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft have developed Skinput, a skin-based interface that turns the human body into a touchscreen. 

­sb Fingerprints Identify 'pod Slurping' Data Thieves
From ACM TechNews

­sb Fingerprints Identify 'pod Slurping' Data Thieves

Intellectual property thieves who engage in so-called pod-slurping attacks leave a "USB fingerprint," according to Vasilios Katos and Theodoros Kavallaris of the...

From ACM TechNews

Boring Conversation? Let Your Computer Listen For You

Researchers are developing software that can make conversing with a computer more productive. Existing automatic speech recognition technology is unreliable. 
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