Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2013
From ACM TechNews
New Ipad App For People With Sight Loss Needs Backing From Publishers
A new iPad app could make it easier for people with macular disease to read.
From ACM TechNews
Human-Robot Relations: Why We Should Worry
Technology is eroding social connections between human beings as machines step in to fill social needs, according to one researcher.
From ACM TechNews
MIT Researchers Build Quad Hd Tv Chip
A new high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) chip demonstrates that implementing HEVC algorithms in silicon chips is possible.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Find Way to Pinpoint Location Where Online Video Was Shot
New video-recognition technology under development can analyze video and determine the time and place it was shot, according to researchers.
From ACM TechNews
Writing Without Keyboard: Handwriting Recognition on the Wrist
Researchers have developed an "air-writing" system that uses sensors attached to a glove to recognize hand movements as a user writes letters in the air.
From ACM Opinion
Calling Out the Robocaller
Last month, the Haggler was sitting at home when the phone rang.
From ACM News
Al-Qaida Tipsheet on Avoiding Drones Found in Mali
One of the last things the bearded fighters did before leaving this city was to drive to the market where traders lay their carpets out in the sand.
From ACM News
Any Two Pages on the Web Are Connected By 19 Clicks or Less
No one knows for sure how many individual pages are on the web, but right now, it’s estimated that there are more than 14 billion.
From ACM News
Nielsen Adjusts Its Ratings to Add Web-Linked Tvs
For media executives, there may be nothing worse than a viewer or listener who is not counted.
From ACM TechNews
New, Multifunctional Electronic Devices May Soon Be Possible, New Research Suggests
A new material interface can improve the functionality of non-silicon-based electronic devices, as well as enhanced nanoelectronic components.
From ACM TechNews
MIT Wants Tomorrow’s Soldiers to Talk Through Their Shirts
The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies is developing microscopic fibers that can be woven into soldiers' uniforms to enable them to communicate with other soldiers on the battlefield.
From ACM TechNews
New Analysis of Genesis Reveals ‘death Sandwich’ Literary Theme
Researchers using a new text analysis tool have discovered a common rhetorical structure known as bracketing in the Book of Genesis.
From ACM TechNews
Google Searches For Style
Google is in discussions with online eyeglass retailer Warby Parker to create a more stylish version of its Google Glass frames.
From ACM TechNews
Insects Inspiring New Technology
Researchers have developed an autonomous navigation system for mobile robots based on the visual system of locusts.
From ACM News
A Sense of the Future
Smartphones not only have a brain but, increasingly, the ability to sense their environment.
From ACM News
How Secure Is the Papal Election?
As the College of Cardinals prepares to elect a new pope, security people like me wonder about the process. How does it work, and just how hard would it be to hack the vote?
From ACM News
How Google Retooled Android With Help From Your Brain
When Google built the latest version of its Android mobile operating system, the Web giant made some big changes to the way the OS interprets your voice commands.
From ACM News
U.s. Ups Ante For Spying on Firms
The White House threatened China and other countries with trade and diplomatic action over corporate espionage as it cataloged more than a dozen cases of cyberattacks and commercial thefts at some of the U.S.'s biggest companies…
From ACM TechNews
Braess' Paradox Infects Social Networks Too, Say Computer Scientists
The paradox that adding extra roads to a network can lead to greater congestion, may be seen in social networks, too.
From ACM TechNews
Quantum Cryptography Put to Work For Electric Grid Security
Quantum cryptography researchers say they demonstrated how they can secure control data for electric grids using quantum cryptography.
From ACM TechNews
Predict an Oscar Winner By Crunching the Numbers
Several organizations are using predictive algorithms to try to identify who will take home an Oscar from the upcoming Academy Awards.
From ACM News
Top .s. Stealth Jet Has to Talk to Allied Planes Over nsecured Radio
For the first time, America's top-of-the-line F-22 fighters and Britain's own cutting-edge Typhoon jets have come together for intensive, long-term training in high-tech warfare.
From ACM News
Exposé of Chinese Data Thieves Reveals Sloppy Tactics
A beige office block in Shanghai's suburbs belonging to the Chinese army became world famous on Tuesday after Mandiant, a Washington-based computer security company, released a 60-page report alleging that it houses a group routinely…
From ACM News
NASA Rover Confirms First Drilled Mars Rock Sample
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has relayed new images that confirm it has successfully obtained the first sample ever collected from the interior of a rock on another planet.
From ACM News
Using 3D Worlds to Visualize Data
Take a walk through a human brain? Fly over the surface of Mars?
From ACM News
Can You Feel Me Now? The Sensational Rise of Haptic Interfaces
Your first experience with haptics was probably your phone vibrating in your pocket.
From ACM News
China Defense Ministry Refutes Cyber Attack Allegations
China's military spokesman said on Wednesday that the country's armed forces had never backed any hacking activities, denouncing U.S. cyber security firm Mandiant's report as groundless both in facts and legal basis.
From ACM News
The Drones Come Home
At the edge of a stubbly, dried-out alfalfa field outside Grand Junction, Colorado, Deputy Sheriff Derek Johnson, a stocky young man with a buzz cut, squints at a speck crawling across the brilliant, hazy sky.
From ACM TechNews
Nanotubes Seen as Alternative When Silicon Chips Hit Their Limits
A microelectronic circuit composed of 44 transistors made from carbon nanotubes demonstrates that nanotubes could be the best successor to silicon-based chips.
From ACM TechNews
Tongue-Tingling Interface Lets You Taste Data
A new device called Tongueduino can turn the tongue into a 'display' for output from environmental sensors.