Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2015
From ACM News
Vision System For Household Robots
For household robots ever to be practical, they'll need to be able to recognize the objects they're supposed to manipulate.
From ACM News
The Algorithm That Unscrambles Fractured Images
Take a hammer to a mirror and you will fracture the image it produces as well as the glass.
From ACM News
Nasa Mars Rover Opportunity Climbs to High Point on Rim
After completing two drives this week, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has paused to photograph the panoramic vista from the highest point the rover has reached during its 40 months of exploring the western rim of Mars'…
From ACM Opinion
Robots Are Sneaking p On Congress (along with Four Other Tech Trends)
One of the best Twitter accounts inside the Beltway or out—belongs to former representativeJohn Dingell (D-Mich.), who announced his retirement with self-effacing posts such as "Added the 'F' word to my Twitter bio" and "Also…
From ACM TechNews
A Bendable Implant Taps the Nervous System Without Damaging It
A newly developed flexible electronic implant hashe same ability to bend and stretch as the membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.
From ACM TechNews
How Reverse-Engineering the Brain Could Help Machines Learn
The U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity has announced a research and development program to reverse-engineer the algorithms brains use.
From ACM TechNews
No Need to Panic--Artificial Intelligence Has Yet to Create a Doomsday Machine
University of Sheffield professor Tony Prescott says the day people create dangerous artificial intelligence is far off.
From ACM TechNews
FBI Is Broadening Surveillance Role, Report Shows
Since passage of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has played an ever-larger role in the warrantless wiretapping program.
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Hard Drive Breakthrough
Physicists from Australian National University and the University of Otago have developed a prototype quantum hard drive.
From ACM TechNews
Nissan, Nasa Team Up For Self-Driving Car Tech
Nissan and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration have announced a five-year research and development partnership to produce an autonomous vehicle.
From ACM TechNews
The 8080 Chip at 40: What's Next For the Mighty Microprocessor?
Descendants of the Intel 8080 microprocessor, which gave rise to the personal computer industry, promise to lead to further computer technology evolution.
From ACM News
Language Translation Tech Starts to Deliver on Its Promise
The tech industry is doing its best to topple the Tower of Babel.
From ACM News
Artificial Intelligence Experts Sign Open Letter to Protect Mankind from Machines
The Future of Life Institute wants humanity to tread lightly while on the road to really smart, and not so cuddly, robots.
From ACM News
The Leap Second Is About to Rattle the Internet. But There's a Plot to Kill It
The Qantas Airways computers started crashing just after midnight.
From ACM News
Snowden: .s. Has Put Too Much Emphasis on Cyber-Offense, Needs Defense
In an on-camera interview with James Bamford for an upcoming episode of PBS' NOVA, Edward Snowden warned that the U.S. Department of Defense and National Security Agency have over-emphasized the development of offensive network…
From ACM News
Scientists Pinpoint Saturn With Exquisite Accuracy
Scientists have paired NASA's Cassini spacecraft with the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio-telescope system to pinpoint the position of Saturn and its family of moons to within about 2 miles…
From ACM News
A Cyberattack Has Caused Confirmed Physical Damage For the Second Time Ever
Amid all the noise the Sony hack generated over the holidays, a far more troubling cyber attack was largely lost in the chaos. Unless you follow security news closely, you likely missed it.
From ACM TechNews
Spin Designers
The Center for Spintronic Materials, Interfaces, and Novel Architectures wants to use the spin of electrons on nanomagnets to encode zeros and ones in computers.
From ACM TechNews
Intel Tech Brings US Closer to the World of 'minority Report'
Technology shown by Intel at the Consumer Electronics Show is largely oriented around a depth-sensing camera that could transform human-computer interaction.
From ACM TechNews
You Will Be Able to Touch the Internet By 2035, and It Will Touch Back
A Dresden University of Technology professor anticipates the "Tactile Internet" as one potential result of the speed of next-generation G5 wireless technology.
From ACM TechNews
Hackers Could Make Smart Homes Stupid--or Worse
A professor working to bolster smart-home security says now is the time to start thinking about cybersecurity nightmares.
From ACM TechNews
Adding Leap Second This Year Expected to Cause Internet Problems
A leap second will be added to the year this summer, and many Internet companies are concerned this will cause problems for websites.
From ACM News
Why Passenger Planes Can Still Vanish
By Dec. 30, when search teams began to recover debris and bodies from the apparent crash site of AirAsia flight QZ8501, the airline industry had begun to hear renewed calls from flyers and regulators for more precise, consistent…
From ACM News
This Computer Knows When to Hold 'em, Knows When to Fold 'em
Card sharks, beware. A new program cannot be beaten at a variety of poker called heads-up limit Texas Hold 'em—at least in a human lifetime—a team of computer scientists reports.
From ACM News
Computer Security: Who You Gonna Call?
Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) stand ready to battle ever-more-sophisticated cyberthreats.
From ACM News
A Spectacular Spiral May Encircle the Milky Way
Mapping a galaxy isn't easy when you live inside it.
From ACM News
Fbi Says Search Warrants Not Needed to Use 'stingrays' in Public Places
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is taking the position that court warrants are not required when deploying cell-site simulators in public places.
From ACM TechNews
Cultures of Code
Computing is a fragmented field, writes Brian Hayes, looking at three professionals who use and develop software on a daily basis, from different perspectives.
From ACM TechNews
Your Computer Could Help Unlock the Universe’s Mysteries in Its Free Time
The University of California, Berkeley's Open Infrastructure for Network Computing program enables PCs to work together to create a virtual supercomputer.
From ACM TechNews
of R Grad's Studies tilize Google Glass
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctoral student is studying how Google Glass can improve the quality of life of people on the autism spectrum.