Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2010
From ACM News
An Invisible Touch For Mobile Devices
A simple gesture-sensing interface could add new meaning to mobile-phone conversations.
From ACM TechNews
Va Researchers Seek Answers to Unexplained Illnesses Through Technology
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs researchers are extracting information from millions of clinical notes in order to identify patterns in symptoms that might help physicians treat war veterans whose conditions are otherwise…
From ACM TechNews
Communications Law to Be Reviewed
Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) announced Monday (May 24) that they would hold hearings to examine how the Communications Act, last overhauled in 1996, meets the needs of the U.S. Federal Communications…
From ACM News
Researchers Turn to Supercomputing to Find Malaria's Soft Spot
Intellectual Ventures builds computer simulations to better understand how malaria spreads and how it responds to eradication efforts.
From ACM News
Book Urges a 'minds-On' Approach to Teaching Science
Thomas O'Brien, director of Binghamton University's Center for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, hopes that his new book will change the way students and teachers think about learning and teaching science.
From ACM News
How Apps, Texting Can Improve Your Health
Before iPhones, Foursquare and Facebook, B.J. Fogg envisioned a mobile fitness device that coaches the user, tracks her location, and shows her friends also exercising at that time.
From ACM News
Eye-Tracking Interfaces Look For Killer App
Eye-tracking interfaces have made great strides but their costliness keeps them in premium markets. The key to broad accessibility is a mass application like gaming to drive down costs.
From ACM News
Eye Tracking For Mobile Control
It's hard sending a text message with arms full of groceries or while wearing winter gloves. Voice control is one alternative to using your fingers, but researchers are also working on other hands-free ways to control mobile…
From ACM TechNews
The Automotive Internet, From Vision to Reality
The European Union-funded CVIS project aims to deploy an advanced communications infrastructure that can facilitate new ways to drastically upgrade the safety, efficiency, and reliability of driving.
From ACM News
Google Rolls Out Encrypted Web Search Option
Google began offering an encrypted option for Web searchers on Friday and said it planned to roll it out for all of its services eventually.
From ACM TechNews
Danger in the Internet Cafe?
University of Calgary computer science professors have identified a type of security threat that gains access to computers through wireless networks found in Internet cafes or other areas where users share non-encrypted wireless…
From ACM News
DARPA
Software systems could one day analyze everything from blurry war-zone footage to the subtle sarcasm in a written paragraph, thanks to two unassuming scientists who are inspired by biology to make revolutionary strides in intelligent…
From ACM News
Researchers Build Mathematical Models For Cancer Treatment
South Dakota State University mathematicians are helping doctors of the Mayo Clinic build mathematical models to fine-tune an innovative strategy to treat cancer.
From ACM News
3-D Printer Proving Ground: Models Meet Their Match in Elementary Classrooms
Want a chocolate bar? Then, print one. Kids in the classroom are learning how technology works by fabricating 3-D copies of their favorite things. The goal is to get them to feel comfortable with engineering.
From ACM TechNews
Seven Atom Transistor Sets the Pace For Future Pcs
A working transistor that contains only seven atoms has been built by a team in Australia. The researchers, led by University of New South Wales professor Michelle Simmons, developed the atomic transistor as part of a project…
From ACM News
Synthetic Genome Reboots Cell
In the culmination of a project spanning 15 years, scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute have engineered the first cell controlled by a synthetic genome.
From ACM News
Facebook, Myspace Confront Privacy Loophole
Facebook, MySpace and several other social-networking sites have been sending data to advertising companies that could be used to find consumers' names and other personal details, despite promises they don't share such information…
From ACM News
MIT Gestural Gloves Bring Back the '80s
Somewhere in your closet there's a pair of gloves straight out of "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo." Well, if you dust them off and fire up your Webcam, you'll have the beginnings of a nifty gestural interface system, thanks to…
From ACM News
Google and Vmware Wed at the App Engine
Google has formed an intriguing partnership with VMware, as the company looks to build out its online business software services for companies.
From ACM News
DARPA Wants Code to Spot
Can software spot a cyberspy’s tricky intentions, before he’s started to help the other side? The way-out researchers at Darpa think so.
From ACM TechNews
3-D Model of Blood Flow By Supercomputer Predicts Heart Attacks
The Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne has used the Cadmos supercomputer to develop software that can create an accurate model of an individual's cardiovascular system.
From ACM TechNews
Risk of Cyberattacks Growing: Csis Memo
A secret memo from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) warns that the risk of cyberoffensives against government, university, and industrial computer systems has grown significantly over the past year.
From ACM TechNews
H-1b Visa Holders Earn More Than .s.-Born It Professionals, Study Claims
A new University of Maryland study found that foreign-born information technology (IT) professionals with temporary skilled worker visas earn more than their U.S. equivalents.
From ACM TechNews
P2p Networks a Treasure Trove of Leaked Health Care Data, Study Finds
Dartmouth College researchers have found that health care data is as easily accessible on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks now as it was before the enactment of a new U.S. data security law last September.
From ACM News
Commercial Quantum Cryptography System Hacked
Physicists have mounted the first successful attack of its kind on a commercial quantum cryptography system.
From ACM News
Facebook Grapples With Privacy Issues
A backlash over Facebook Inc.'s privacy practices has triggered disagreement inside the company that could force Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to scale back efforts to encourage users to share more about themselves in public…
From ICT Results
James Bond-Style Tech Ready For Emergencies
Instantly deployable James Bond-style information and communication technologies are now available to coordinate disaster response among diverse agencies and NGOs, thanks to European researchers.
From ACM News
Breaking the Logjam: Improving Data Download From Outer Space
Space satellites face a data logjam because their increasingly powerful sensors produce more information than their bandwidth can easily transmit. Experiments indicate that sending more complex computer chips into space could…
From ACM News
Minding the Gap: A Look at the Divide Between the Sciences and the Humanities
In the past 50 years, universities have often sought to bridge the divide described in 1959 by noted scientist and novelist C.P. Snow in his Rede Lecture at the University of Cambridge, "The Two Cultures and the Scientific…
From ACM News
Software Tool Helps Tap Into The Power Of Graphics Processing
A research team from North Carolina State University has developed software that could make it easier for traditional software programs to take advantage of powerful graphics processing units, increasing complex computing…