acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

News


Latest News News Archive Refine your search:
dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectInformation Systems
authorNew Scientist
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.


Snow Snaps Give You a Better Weather Picture
From ACM TechNews

Snow Snaps Give You a Better Weather Picture

Photos taken of snowfall and posted online could help fill holes in satellite weather data caused by cloud cover, says Indiana University Ph.D. student Haipeng...

Font for Digits Lets Numbers Punch Their Weight
From ACM TechNews

Font for Digits Lets Numbers Punch Their Weight

Researchers at the St. Andrews and Calgary universities have developed FatFonts, a font that offers a way to write numbers so that their areas equal their numerical...

Poll Consensus on Million-Dollar Logic Problem
From ACM TechNews

Poll Consensus on Million-Dollar Logic Problem

University of Maryland, College Park computer scientist William Gasarch has re-run his poll on the biggest problem in computer science.

Online Games Are a Gold Mine for Design Ideas
From ACM News

Online Games Are a Gold Mine for Design Ideas

Gone are the days when video gaming was a private pursuit. Gaming services such as Microsoft's Xbox Live not only connect players in living rooms the world over...

Crunching Cancer With Numbers
From ACM News

Crunching Cancer With Numbers

When Danny Hillis spent a day watching a top surgeon perform keyhole cancer surgery, he was left both exhilarated and depressed. The clinical precision with which...

Crumbling Labs Could Clip Nasa's Wings
From ACM News

Crumbling Labs Could Clip Nasa's Wings

Years of neglect have left many NASA labs that might be used for breakthrough technology research in rough shape, says a report from the U.S. National Academies...

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. 

From ACM News

Cellphone Traces Reveal You're So Predictable

We may all like to consider ourselves free spirits. But a study of the traces left by 50,000 cellphone users over three months has conclusively proved otherwise...

­.s. Networks and Power Grid ­nder (mock) Cyber-Attack
From ACM News

­.s. Networks and Power Grid ­nder (mock) Cyber-Attack

Unknown hackers have taken out U.S. cellphone networks in an ongoing cyber-attack that will soon knock out parts of the nation's electricity grid – say the officials...

Smart Dust Could Give Early Warning of Space Storms
From ACM News

Smart Dust Could Give Early Warning of Space Storms

A SWARM of "smart dust" spacecraft, positioned at a sweet spot between the Earth and the sun, could alert us to the approach of dangerous space storms well before...

To Beat Spam, Turn Its Own Weapons Against It
From ACM TechNews

To Beat Spam, Turn Its Own Weapons Against It

Researchers from the International Computer Science Institute and the University of California, San Diego have developed a method for blocking the most common type...

From ACM News

Touchscreen Merges the Real and Digital Worlds

For all the advances in table-top and tablet computing, some design professionals will always prefer the feel of pen on paper to stylus on glass. A new device could...

Medibots: The World's Smallest Surgeons
From ACM News

Medibots: The World's Smallest Surgeons

A man lies comatose on an operating table. The enormous spider that hangs above him has plunged four appendages into his belly. The spider, made of white steel,...

From ACM TechNews

Augmented Reality Gets Off to a Wobbly Start

Although the iPhone can superimpose navigation routes or reviews on top of real-time images, augmented reality (AR) still has a long way to go. The iPhone's application...

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...
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account