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 Opinion
The Man Behind the Google Brain: Andrew Ng and the Quest For the New AI
There's a theory that human intelligence stems from a single algorithm.
From ACM News
Smartphones Put a Translator in Your Pocket
The days of madly flipping through bilingual phrase books while trying to converse with somebody in another language is fast giving way to a technological alternative developed in the Bay Area and elsewhere.
From ACM News
My Big Fat European Family: What Genomics Tell s About Shared Ancestors
Last month, a trio of engineers debuted an app that allows Icelanders to determine if they’re actually related to a potential date.
From ACM TechNews
Older Is Wiser: Study Shows Software Developers' Skills Improve Over Time
A new study suggests older programmers are keeping up with changes in the field and even have a slight edge over younger peers, in some cases.
From ACM TechNews
Google Glass Picks Up Early Signal: Keep Out
Privacy concerns are mounting about Google Glass to the point that it has been preemptively banned in some locations, even though it's not yet available.
From ACM TechNews
Mood-Tracking App Paves Way for Pocket Therapy
Emotion Sense is a new smartphone app that mines a user's cellphone data to track their feelings and determine what might be triggering peaks in their mood.
From ACM TechNews
Google's Chief Internet Evangelist on Creating the Interplanetary Internet
Google chief Internet evangelist and ACM president Vint Cerf has been working on an interplanetary Internet, with protocols capable of handling a space environment.
From ACM TechNews
.s. Is Weighing Wide Overhaul of Wiretap Laws
The Obama administration reportedly is ready to back an FBI plan to overhaul surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate using the Internet.
From ACM TechNews
Living in 'the Matrix' Requires Less Brain Power
Neurons called place cells in rat brains function differently when the animals are in virtual reality than when they are in the real world.
From ACM Opinion
Intelligent Robots Will Overtake Humans By 2100, Experts Say
Are you prepared to meet your robot overlords?
From ACM News
China Sees Cyberwar as Reducing .s. Advantage in Future Conflict
It's one thing to read news concerning the latest report to Congress by the U.S. Department of Defense on China's latest military activities. But with regard to China's evolving stance and capabilities in the cyber arena, it's…
From ACM News
Nasa's Spitzer Puts Planets in a Petri Dish
Our galaxy is teeming with a wild variety of planets.
From ACM News
Linguists Identify 15,000-Year-Old 'ultraconserved Words'
You, hear me! Give this fire to that old man. Pull the black worm off the bark and give it to the mother. And no spitting in the ashes!
From ACM TechNews
Robots Able to Reach Through Clutter With Whole-Arm Tactile Sensing
A new robot control method works with robotic joints and tactile sensing, keeping a robot's arm flexible and giving it a sense of touch across its entire arm.
From ACM TechNews
Insect Eye-Inspired Camera Captures Wide Field of View with No Distortion, According to Study Co-Led By Cu-Boulder
An experimental digital camera can take exceptionally wide-angle photos without distorting the image by mimicking the bowl-shaped eyes of insects.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Scientists Suggest New Spin on Origins of Evolvability
Researchers have developed a simulated model of the way organisms evolve, which they say offers insights about evolvability over generations.
From ACM Opinion
Google's Chief Internet Evangelist on Creating the Interplanetary Internet
When some future Mars colonist is able to open his browser and watch a cat in a shark suit chasing a duck while riding a roomba, they will have Vint Cerf to thank.
From ACM News
Here's How Smartphones, Tablets, and Huge Databases Will pend Market Research
If you're tired of those annoying 8 p.m. phone calls asking questions about where you shop, or of carrying an Arbitron sensor to provide radio ratings, your omnipresent smartphone or tablet might well turn out to be your savior…
From ACM Opinion
Why Fbi and CIA Didn't Connect the Dots
The FBI and the CIA are being criticized for not keeping better track of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the months before the Boston Marathon bombings.
From ACM TechNews
Cheetah-Cub Quadruped Robot Learns to Walk, Trot Using Gait Patterns From Real Animal
Researchers say the Cheetah-Cub robotic quadruped proves that gait primitives from the motion capture of an animal can be adapted to a robot.
From ACM TechNews
How to Get More Followers on Twitter
Researchers found that informational content attracts Twitter followers at a rate 30 times higher than content focused on the tweeter.
From ACM TechNews
pc Develops an Advanced Traffic Management System to Reduce Costs and Pollution
A new information system based on intelligent data processing is designed to improve the mobility management of people and vehicles.
From ACM TechNews
Finding a Gecko in the Crowd
The SLOOP software system is designed to automate part of the process of matching images of animals in massive catalogs.
From ACM TechNews
AI Card Game Knows How to Bend the Rules
A new artificial intelligence system generates new card games from scratch.
From ACM TechNews
Government Lab Reveals It Has Operated Quantum Internet for Over Two Years
Los Alamos National Labs has been running a quantum Internet that can transmit perfectly secure messages for more than two years.
From ACM TechNews
Emerging Technologies at SC13: A Chat With the Chairs
SC13's new Emerging Technologies program will focus technologies that could potentially shape computing and society as a whole.
From ACM Opinion
Bitcoin vs. Ben Bernanke
Could a virtual currency created by an anonymous Internet hacker someday replace the U.S. dollar?
From ACM News
Commercial Drones Take Flight
Commercial drones are poised to revolutionize a wide range of industries, though regulatory and privacy concerns have created some resistance.
From ACM News
How Today's Sensors Could Make Tomorrow's Cars Safer
Driverless cars haven’t hit the roads yet, but computers are already helping to slow down or stop a car in situations when a crash is imminent.
From ACM News
After an iPhone Is Snatched, a High-Speed Chase
The woman was talking on her iPhone, and never saw coming her induction into a large and growing subset of crime victims.