acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

News


bg-corner

An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


Laser Light Switch Could Leave Transistors in the Shade
From ACM TechNews

Laser Light Switch Could Leave Transistors in the Shade

Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have developed an optical transistor that uses one laser beam to control another, potentially forming...

From ACM TechNews

Building a Crash-Proof Internet

The Internet's susceptibility to earthquakes, accidents, and other disruptions appears to be greater than people originally assumed, and a great deal of the Net's...

Magnet and Glue Turn Tongue Into Joystick
From ACM TechNews

Magnet and Glue Turn Tongue Into Joystick

New ScientistGeorgia Tech University professors Maysam Ghovanloo and Xueliang Huo have developed a headset that enables a person to precisely control a wheelchair...

From ACM TechNews

Physics Brings Realism to Virtual Reality

The latest multi-core processors and smart software are enabling physicists and engineers to simulate the real world with unprecedented accuracy to create more...

From ACM TechNews

'secret' Questions Leave Accounts Vulnerable

The secret questions some Web sites ask new users to answer for verification purposes in case a password is forgotten are actually far less secure and far easier...

'governor' Would Teach Military Robots the Rules of War
From ACM TechNews

'governor' Would Teach Military Robots the Rules of War

Georgia Institute of Technology robotics engineer Ron Arkin is researching how military robots could be programmed to act ethically and obey the rules of engagement...

Synthetic Cells Get Together to Make Electronics
From ACM TechNews

Synthetic Cells Get Together to Make Electronics

University of Oxford chemists, working with colleagues at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, have built a network of artificial cells that acts like an...

Looking Forward to the Smarter Smartphone
From ACM TechNews

Looking Forward to the Smarter Smartphone

Cutting-edge research suggests there are major changes in store for smartphones. For example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Brandon Taylor and Michael...

Virtual Power Plants Could Tame Coming Grid Chaos
From ACM News

Virtual Power Plants Could Tame Coming Grid Chaos

Fears over energy security and climate change have led to record investment in renewable energy. But a major problem threatens to stall progress towards a more...

From ACM TechNews

Instant Sex Change Served ­p By Video Software

Software developed by University of East Anglia computer scientist Barry-John Theobald and Weta Digital's Iain Matthews can take a live video feed of a person talking...

Robots Rolling Toward Farm Revolution
From ACM TechNews

Robots Rolling Toward Farm Revolution

Carnegie Mellon University roboticist Tony Stentz says that in the near future the farming industry may undergo a significant change as robotic farmhands become...

From ACM News

Fake Web Traffic Can Hide Secret Chat

The Internet's underlying technology can be harnessed to let people exchange secret messages, perhaps allowing free, coded speech under oppressive regimes. So says...

Software to Track Our Emotional Outbursts
From ACM TechNews

Software to Track Our Emotional Outbursts

Sentiment analysis agents are designed to teach computers to comprehend the emotions expressed in text just as well as people do, and early adopters include big...

Could the Net Become Self-Aware?
From ACM TechNews

Could the Net Become Self-Aware?

The Internet is similar to the human brain in that it has a complex network of nodes for holding, processing, recalling, and transmitting information. The Web...

Harnessing Spammers to Solve AI Problems
From ACM TechNews

Harnessing Spammers to Solve AI Problems

Some Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHAs) security systems are already being solved by spammers, but CAPTCHA co...

From ACM TechNews

Could Quantum Mathematics Shake Up Google?

Pedro Carpena, a physicist at the University of Malaga in Spain, has used a mathematical technique for studying disorder in quantum systems to extract keywords...

From ACM TechNews

The Mobile Future of the Keyboard

Touchscreen keyboards could stand some improvement before they become the norm in smartphones and make their way to desktop computers, gaming devices, and even...

From ACM TechNews

Vibrating Touch Screen Puts Braille at the Fingertips

Jussi Rantala of Finland's University of Tampere is working on a project that would allow the visually impaired to use touch-screen devices such as iPhones. Rantala's...

Robotic Computer Controlled Only by Gestures
From ACM News

Robotic Computer Controlled Only by Gestures

Frederic Kaplan at the Swiss Federal Institutes in Lausanne has designed and built the QB1 computer, a PC-based robot that plays music and games and is operated...

From ACM TechNews

Gadget Reads U­sers' Minds From Their Grip

Computer-human interface researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a prototype control device that predicts what function the...
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account