Communications of the ACM
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How the “Frontier” Became the Slogan of Uncontrolled AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been billed as the next frontier of humanity: the newly available expanse whose exploration …
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Designing an interactive prayer mat
Successful interactive systems design is often based on detecting a need that really good solutions do not yet exist for, then coming up with a realistic solution...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
A sound social venture: recognising birds
Dan Stowell was a researcher at Queen Mary University of London when he founded an early version of what is now known as a Social Venture: a company created toContinue...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Oh no! Not again…
What a mess. There’s flour all over the kitchen floor. A fortnight ago I opened the cupboard to get sugar for my hot chocolate. As I pulled out the sugar, it knocked...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Conjuring with logic: the remote control red-black mind meld
Magic tricks are just algorithms – they involve a magician following the steps of the trick precisely. But how can a magician be sure a trick will definitely work...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Adrian Stokes: Internet pioneer
We take the Internet for granted now, but it is not that long ago that it did not exist at all. Despite being disabled from birth with spina bifida, Adrian Stokes...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Herman Hollerith: from punch cards to a special company
Herman Hollerith, the son of immigrants, struggled early on at school and then later in bookkeeping at college but it didn’t stop him inventing machines that used...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
A handshaking puzzle
By Przemysław Wałęga, Queen Mary University of London Logical reasoning and proof, whether done using math notation or informally in your head, is an importantContinue...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Tanaka Atsuko: an electric dress
Wearable computing is now increasingly common whether wearing smart watches or clothes that light up. The pioneer of the latter was Japanese artist, Tanaka Atsuko...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Electric Dreams and Solid Light at the Tate Modern
Two current exhibitions at the Tate Modern in London that those interesting in technology and art may want to see are “Electric Dreams: Art and Technology before...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
My first Signs
Alexander Graham Bell was inspired by the deafness of his mother to develop new technologies to help. Lila Harrar, then a computer science student at Queen Mary...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Join the crowd with swarm intelligence
Next time you are in a large crowd, look around you: all those people moving together, and mostly not bumping into each other. How does it happen? Flocks of birds...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Nemisindo: breaking the sound barrier
Games are becoming ever more realistic. Now, thanks to the work of Joshua Reiss’s research team and their spinout company, Nemisindo, it’s not just the graphics...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
The logic piano
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London Victorian, William Stanley Jevons was born in Liverpool in 1835. He was famous in his day as an economist and his...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Mike Lynch: serial success
By Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London Mike Lynch was one of Britain’s most successful entrepreneurs. An electrical engineer, he built his businesses around...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Superhero Syllogisms
by Paul Curzon Queen Mary University of London, first appeared in A BIT of CS4FN 2 Superheroes don’t just have physical powers. Often they come out on top because...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Eating at Quonk: a tough puzzle?
by Paul Curzon Queen Mary University of London, from the archive The puzzle is based on one devised by psychologists as part of research into whether we humansContinue...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
To be (CEO) or not to be (CEO)
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London, based on an interview between Hamit Soyel and Queen Mary Innovations Just because you start a start-up doesn’tContinue...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
The Blue Planet?
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London How much should we change the world to make it easier for our machines to work? Plant scientists have spotted aContinue...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Mixing Research with Entrepreneurship: Find a need and solve it
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London Becoming a successful entrepreneur often starts with seeing a need: a problem someone has that needs to be fixed...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)