Communications of the ACM
A Healthy Dose of AI
Building artificial intelligence into medical devices can speed diagnoses and potentially improve treatments and outcomes.
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.
From ACM News
E-Textbooks Get a Lift From Publishers
Over the years, publishers have tried a variety of strategies to sell digital textbooks but with limited success. Two major publishers, Pearson and McGraw-Hill,...
From ACM News
Security Firm Is Vague on Its Compromised Devices
More than a day after RSA security posted an "urgent" alert warning that a sophisticated intruder might be able to initiate a "broad attack" on a password device...
From ACM News
Keeping Tabs on the Infrastructure, Wirelessly
Engineers routinely inspect bridges and other structures for cracks and corrosion. But because they can’t always be there in person, one highly intelligent bridge...
From ACM News
Quake Moved Japan Closer to U.S. and Altered Earth's Spin
The magnitude-8.9 earthquake that struck northern Japan on Friday not only violently shook the ground and generated a devastating tsunami, it also moved the coastline...
From ACM News
Google
In early 2009, statisticians inside the Googleplex here embarked on a plan code-named Project Oxygen. Their mission was to devise something far more important...
From ACM News
Poker Bots Invade Online Gambling
Bryan Taylor, 36, could not shake the feeling that something funny was going on. Three of his most frequent opponents on an online poker site were acting oddly...
From ACM News
Researchers Show How a Car's Electronics Can Be Taken Over Remotely
With a modest amount of expertise, computer hackers could gain remote access to someone's car—just as they do to people's personal computers—and take over the...
From ACM News
Software Progress Beats Moore
One of the old jokes in computing is that what the hardware giveth, the software taketh away.
From ACM News
Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software
When five television studios became entangled in a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against CBS, the cost was immense. As part of the obscure task of "discovery"—providing...
From ACM Opinion
Google Schools Its Algorithm
To humans, computer intelligence is a puzzle, as if the machines have split personalities. They can be so remarkably smart at times, yet so bafflingly dumb at...
From ACM News
The New Police Siren: You
Joe Bader tried setting the two tones of his invention four notes apart on the musical scale, but the result sounded like music, not a siren. Same thing when...
From ACM News
Remapping Computer Circuitry to Avert Impending Bottlenecks
Hewlett-Packard researchers have proposed a fundamental rethinking of the modern computer for the coming era of nanoelectronics—a marriage of memory and computing...
From ACM News
Moonlighting Within Microsoft, in Pursuit of New Apps
If you have a smartphone, you probably have apps on it to check the news, play games, help with shopping or further a hobby like travel or bird-watching. But...
From ACM TechNews
Microsoft's Kinect: The New Mouse?
Could the Kinect technology, which recognizes gestures and voice commands, be the beginning of a new way of communicating with computers?
From ACM News
U.S. Sets 21st-Century Goal: Building a Better Patent Office
President Obama, who emphasizes American innovation, says modernizing the federal Patent and Trademark Office is crucial to "winning the future." So at a time when...
From ACM News
Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter
Like any aspiring filmmaker, Michael McDonald, a high school senior, used a blog to show off his videos. But discouraged by how few people bothered to visit,...
From ACM News
New Hacking Tools Pose Bigger Threats to Wi-Fi sers
You may think the only people capable of snooping on your Internet activity are government intelligence agents or possibly a talented teenage hacker holed up...
From ACM News
Facebook Officials Keep Quiet on Its Role in Revolts
With Facebook playing a starring role in the revolts that toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt, you might think the company’s top executives would use this...
From ACM News
On 'jeopardy,' Watson's a Natural
In the end, the humans on "Jeopardy!" surrendered meekly.
From ACM News