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 News
Drone Home
A few months ago I borrowed a drone from a company called Parrot. Officially the drone is called an AR.Drone 2.0, but for simplicity's sake, we're just going to call it the Parrot. The Parrot went on sale last May and retails…
From ACM TechNews
A System That Uses Video Surveillance Cameras to Alert Security Agents of Dangerous Situations
Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M) researchers have developed an intelligent system that analyzes video surveillance camera images in real time, detects abnormal situations, and alerts nearby security agents. The platform…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Develop Sound Way to Improve Smartphone Battery Life
Old Dominion University researchers have developed a system that uses an audio signal to reduce the power consumption of Wi-Fi components. Continuous Wi-Fi use is a main culprit in draining a smart device's power, notes OldView…
From ACM TechNews
Into the Quantum Internet at the Speed of Light
University of Innsbruck physicists have discovered a way to transfer quantum information stored in an atom onto a particle of light and then send it to a distant atom via an optical fiber. Although quantum computing has proven…
From ACM TechNews
Intel, niversities Are Working on Transformable Cpus
Processors that change configuration depending on workload to greatly increase central-processing unit (CPU) performance and energy efficiency are the focus of a research project at Intel Labs, the University of Texas, Carnegie…
From ACM News
Palm-Size Nano-Copter Is the Afghanistan War's Latest Spy Drone
British troops in Afghanistan are flying a drone that’s shrunk down to its essentials: a micro-machine that spies, built for a solitary user.
From ACM Careers
Qihoo Takes on Baidu in China's Search Engine Wars
In the past few years, Zhou Hongyi, the 43-year-old co-founder of Chinese antivirus company Qihoo 360 Technology, has engaged in high-profile legal conflicts with Yahoo China and Tencent, which operates China’s QQ instant-messaging…
From ACM Opinion
The Origins of 'big Data': An Etymological Detective Story
Words and phrases are fundamental building blocks of language and culture, much as genes and cells are to the biology of life.
From ACM TechNews
Data Waves Keep Your Wearable Tech in Tune
A new wireless technique that uses a phenomenon known as Zenneck surface waves could permit wearable technology products to communicate with each other.
From ACM TechNews
Itu: Internet Policy Still on Agenda
Intergovernmental organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union play a major role in Internet control and regulation, despite some calling for the United States to stop its ITU funding.
From ACM TechNews
Wanted: Geeks to Help Fight Pentagon's Cyberwar
The Pentagon intends to add to the U.S. Cyber Command 4,000 troops and civilians capable of discovering cyberattacks and rapidly rewriting network defenses multiple times a day.
From ACM Opinion
Meet the Data Brains Behind the Rise of Facebook
Jay Parikh sits at a desk inside Building 16 at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, and his administrative assistant, Genie Samuel, sits next to him. Every so often, Parikh will hear her giggle, and that means…
From ACM News
Behind the Scenes of Latin America's Internet 'brain'
It may be one of central Miami's most recognisable buildings, yet only a few people know what goes on inside the sturdy concrete block with massive spheres on its roof.
From ACM News
Irgc Official: Iran Enjoys 4th Biggest Cyber Army in World
Iran enjoys the world's fourth biggest cyber army, an official of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps announced on Saturday, stressing that the IRGC's power is seen as a major counterbalance to the U.S. and Israel in the region…
From ACM Careers
Once Blackberry Focused, a Campus Widens Its View
The University of Waterloo, in a city that people outside Canada would struggle to find on a map, is one of the world’s best technology schools.
From ACM TechNews
New Research May Extend Integrated Circuit Battery Life Tenfold
Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Sematech, and Texas State University built and tested vertical Esaki tunnel diodes smaller than 120 nanometers in diameter.
From ACM TechNews
niversity of Twente Researchers Find Faults in It Systems
University of Twente researchers are developing model-checking techniques to help remove the faults from computer systems and make them error-free.
From ACM News
What It Really Takes to Make a Flexible Phone
Had Dr. Dipak Chowdhury known just how accident-prone I really am, he never would have handed over the 0.1-millimeter sheet of glass for me to bend between my fingers.
From ACM TechNews
David Gelernter: Bring on the 'stream Browser'
Yale University professor David Gelernter recently predicted the end of current Web and search technology as the focus shifts from a space-based Web to a time-based "worldstream."
From ACM TechNews
Finding More STEM Students
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy has announced Next Generation Connecticut, a plan to dedicate $1.5 billion to improving the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs at the University of Connecticut.
From ACM TechNews
Holograms Seen as Tools to Teach Future Generations About Holocaust
University of Southern California (USC) Shoah Foundation researchers are working on the New Dimensions in Testimony project, which involves developing 3-D holograms of nearly a dozen people who survived Nazi Germany's concentration…
From ACM TechNews
Tech, Telecom Giants Take Sides as FCC Proposes Large Public Wifi Networks
The U.S. Federal Communications Committee recently submitted a proposal to create super Wi-Fi networks across the country that would enable users to make calls or surf the Internet for free.
From ACM News
Ticketmaster Dumps 'hated' Captcha Verification System
The world's largest online ticket retailer is to stop requiring users to enter hard-to-read words in order to prove they are human.
From ACM News
Software Predicts Tomorrow's News By Analyzing Today's and Yesterday's
Researchers have created software that predicts when and where disease outbreaks might occur based on two decades of New York Times articles and other online data.
From ACM TechNews
The Ecological Badminton Robot
Researchers at the Flanders' Mechatronics Technology Center have developed software for conducting an energy efficiency analysis of mechatronic systems and optimizing energy efficiency in machine design.
From ACM Opinion
Eric Schmidt nloads on China in New Book
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt is brutally clear: China is the most dangerous superpower on Earth.
From ACM News
Scan May Detect Signs of Nfl Players' Brain Disease
An insidious, microscopic protein that has been found in the brain tissue of professional football players after death may now be detectable in living people by scanning their brains.
From ACM News
An Idea That Changed the World
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was called the "Ten Days That Shook the World," the title of a book by foreign correspondent Jack Reed, Class of 1910. But how about the one day in Russia that shook the world, and still does?
From ACM News
An Internet For Manufacturing
What is the industrial Internet?
From ACM TechNews
Experts Discuss the Future of Supercomputers
Science Live recently hosted an online chat with University of Tennessee professor Jack Dongarra and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory deputy director Horst Simon to discuss the coming class of exascale systems.