Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
May 2013
From ACM TechNews
Security Risks Found in Sensors For Heart Devices, Consumer Electronics
An international research team has exposed a vulnerability in the sensors used in medical devices, Bluetooth microphones, and computers.
From ACM TechNews
Parcels Find Their Way to You Via the Crowd
A potential crowd-powered delivery system called TwedEx would deliver packages to consumers without requiring them to deviate from normal routes.
From ACM News
Is This Virtual Worm the First Sign of the Singularity?
For all the talk of artificial intelligence and all the games of SimCity that have been played, no one in the world can actually simulate living things. Biology is so complex that nowhere on Earth is there a comprehensive model…
From ACM News
The Audacious Plan to End Hunger with 3D Printed Food
Anjan Contractor's 3D food printer might evoke visions of the "replicator" popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor's company, Systems & Materials…
From ACM Opinion
The Future of Propaganda: Sean Gourley on Big Data and the 'war of Ideas'
In 2009, Sean Gourley, an Oxford-trained physicist, gave a TED talk called "The Mathematics of War."
From ACM News
How to Hack a Nation's Infrastructure
I'm watching a live video feed of people visiting a cafe in London.
From ACM TechNews
Principles of Ant Locomotion Could Help Future Robot Teams Work nderground
Researchers say they have discovered the fundamental principles of locomotion that robot teams could use to quickly travel through underground tunnels.
From ACM TechNews
Program Motivates Native Alaskans to Pursue STEM Careers
U.S. education needs improved quality control if it is to produce better results, says the founder of the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program.
From ACM TechNews
Intel Fuels a Rebellion Around Your Data
Intel Labs is launching a data economy initiative to help consumers realize more of the value of their personal digital information.
From ACM News
How to Make a Less Creepy Robot? Simple, Just Add Data
Disney’s research arm has solved a problem that you probably didn’t even know robots have—their inability to accept objects from people in a natural way.
From ACM Opinion
Is Computing Speed Set to Make a Quantum Leap?
"Our imagination is stretched to the utmost," wrote Richard Feynman, the greatest physicist of his day, "not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things that are there."
From ACM News
Out with the Old
Getting rid of obsolete data is getting more difficult, thanks to new regulations and more personal devices in the workplace.
From ACM News
Princeton niversity Celebrates the Art of Science
Sometimes the connection between art and science is clear.
From ACM News
If Your Shrink Is a Bot, How Do You Respond?
Her hair is brown and tied back into a professional-looking ponytail.
From ACM News
Helper Robots Are Steered, Tentatively, to Care For the Aging
In the opening scene of the movie "Robot & Frank," which takes place in the near future, Frank, an elderly man who lives alone, is arguing with his son about going to a medical center for Alzheimer's treatment when the son interrupts…
From ACM News
Nasa Mars Rover Curiosity Drills Second Rock Target
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has used the drill on its robotic arm to collect a powdered sample from the interior of a rock called "Cumberland."
From ACM News
Web Browsers Are Reinvented
Mobile phones, wearable devices, and self-driving cars are generating buzz as the future of technology. But the old Web browser is being reinvented too, in a trend with implications for how consumers work and entertain themselves…
From ACM News
Chatting in Code on Walkie-Talkies in Pakistan's Restive Tribal Areas
Sharif loves using his mukhabera. "I use it daily, mostly at night time, because signals are clear at that time," he says. "I am in touch with most of my friends this way."
From ACM TechNews
Scientists Take Data Approach to Beat Disease
Researchers are using computer hardware and programming with genetic sequencing tools to help identify the sources of ailments at the genetic level.
From ACM TechNews
Badminton-Playing Robot Tests Software Designs of the Future
A badminton-playing robot demonstrates methodology and tools under development for optimizing energy flows/losses throughout a machine.
From ACM TechNews
New Imaging System 'reads' Ancient Scrolls
A combination of x-rays and computer modeling offers historians a way to read ancient parchments so fragile they cannot be unrolled.
From ACM TechNews
Thought Experiment: Build a Supercomputer Replica of the Human Brain
Henry Markram believes his Human Brain Project can simulate all 86 billion neurons in the human brain as well as the 100 trillion connections among them.
From ACM TechNews
Fed Chairman: 'humanity's Capacity to Innovate' Has Never Been Greater
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke says innovation and information technology are fueling economic change.
From ACM TechNews
Group Helps to Improve Use of Colossal Digital Library 'Europeana'
The UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country's IXA Group has enhanced the use of the vast Europeana digital library.
From ACM TechNews
Face-Reading System Watches You Watching Ads
Researchers have developed a system assess how muscles in the face move in response to watching a video.
From ACM News
Why Google and the Pentagon Want 'quantum Computers'
Imagine a computer that can teach your mobile phone to recognize any object it sees, or one that can instantly find optimal travel routes for thousands of planes to avoid a snowstorm and deliver their passengers safely to a destination…
From ACM Opinion
Paul Otellini's Intel: Can the Company That Built the Future Survive It?
Forty-five years after Intel was founded by Silicon Valley legends Gordon Moore and Bob Noyce, it is the world's leading semiconductor company.
From ACM Opinion
Should Patents Be Awarded to Software?
The goal of the U.S. patent system is clear: to provide individuals or companies with an incentive to innovate by offering them 20 years of exclusive rights to an invention.
From ACM TechNews
Nice! The Brain as a Model For Future Supercomputers
The Neuro-Inspired Computational Elements workshop is aimed at finding ways to tap the brain's ability to transmit signals along massively parallel channels.
From ACM TechNews
Hospital Visits Take on New Meaning With Therapeutic Robots
The Multi-Robot Cognitive Systems Operating in Hospitals project gives European researchers the opportunity to examine how humans and robots interact.