Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
July 2009
From ICT Results
Software nlocks the Power of Grids
A huge amount of computing power sits idle most of the time, and new technologies enabling the sharing of resources aim to capitalize on that. Now European researchers have developed software to simultaneously run applications…
From ACM TechNews
Digital Eyes Will Chart Baseball's nseen Skills
The game of baseball could be significantly affected by a new camera and software system capable of recording the precise speed and location of the ball and every player on the field, which will generate statistics that will…
From ACM TechNews
.S. Tech Education Push Gets a New Techie Weapon
Raytheon recently presented an open source computer simulation and modeling program designed to improve science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to the nonprofit Business-Higher Education Forum. The Raytheon…
From ACM TechNews
Robot Learns to Smile and Frown
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have developed an Einstein robot "empowered" to learn to smile and frown realistically via machine learning. The robot's head features 30 facial muscles, each propelled…
From ACM TechNews
Defense Agency, Faulted for Scaling Back Computer Research, Gets New Leader
University of Washington professor Edward D. Lazowska wants Regina E. Dugan, the new director of the U.S. Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to re-establish a close relationship with the computing…
From ACM TechNews
Emotional Robots: Will We Love Them or Hate Them?
Scientists have theorized that many technologies would function better if they were aware of their users' emotional states, and progress in this field includes face- and voice-reading computer programs and wearable equipment…
From ACM TechNews
Ndssl Receives $1.45 Million to Develop Petascale Computer Modeling Capabilities
The Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory (NDSSL) at Virginia Tech's Virginia Bioinformatics Institute has been awarded a four-year, $1.45 million grant by the National Science Foundation to develop petascale computing…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Help Set Security Standards For the Internet
Dartmouth College researchers who pioneered the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) have assumed leadership roles in the establishment of Internet security standards and guidelines. "PKI labors under the misconception that it's…
From ACM News
Americans See Science as Lagging Here
Both the American public and researchers have a high regard for scientific advancement. But they disagree over the standing of science in the U.S. A full 84 percent of the public believes science's effect on society has been…
From ACM News
Crime-Fighting Eyes Take to the Skies
In what they say is the first step toward a new era in law enforcement techniques, city officials in Lancaster, Calif. are testing a small airplane mounting a high-tech surveillance camera to help fight crime. The aerial surveillance…
From ICT Results
Tying p Loose Ends For a Quantum Leap
Quantum technologies have become the Holy Grail of the IT industry with research projects springing up throughout Europe and all over the world. Now a major European effort is being made to spur development by adopting a coordinated…
From ACM TechNews
Linked Data System Provides More Effective Research
Experts at the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) have developed the Resilience Knowledge Base Explorer, a new infrastructure that links data in a manner that is in line with Sir Tim…
From ACM TechNews
Flaw Opens Atms to Hackers
Juniper security researcher Barnaby Jack canceled plans for a live demonstration of the insecurity of automatic teller machines (ATMs) at the upcoming Black Hat Security Conference due to pressure from ATM manufacturers and concerns…
From ACM TechNews
Laser Light Switch Could Leave Transistors in the Shade
Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have developed an optical transistor that uses one laser beam to control another, potentially forming the foundation for a new generation of ultrafast light-based computers…
From ACM TechNews
People Avoiding Automatic Location Information in Mobile Services
Providers of fully automatic Web and mobile location information services will need to allow users to edit the information to get more people to use the features, according to researchers at the Helsinki Institute for Information…
From ACM News
Scientist Shortage? Maybe Not
The predictions are dire, the language grim: Looming shortfalls. Gathering storm. Disturbing mosaic. It's not the economy or global warming. It's the coming shortage of U.S. scientists and engineers, foretold for decades by corporate…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers nite to Distribute Quantum Keys
Scientists from 41 European research and industrial organizations recently sent secure, quantum encrypted information over an eight-node, mesh network. By creating a network with an average link length of 20 to 30 kilometers…
From ACM TechNews
Building a Crash-Proof Internet
The Internet's susceptibility to earthquakes, accidents, and other disruptions appears to be greater than people originally assumed, and a great deal of the Net's physical infrastructure is badly outdated, with upgrading challenged…
From ACM TechNews
Darpa's Smart, Flat Camera Is Packed With Beady Eyes
Southern Methodist University professor Marc Christensen, backed by funding from the U.S. Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has developed Panoptes, an ultra-slim camera technology that combines images…
From ACM TechNews
Video Tool to Zoom in on Criminals
Researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have developed software that enhances the resolution of raw video images and improves the quality of the images. TAU professor Leonid Yaroslavsky and colleagues used specially designed…
From ACM TechNews
Semantic Search Engine to Speed p Administrative Procedures
The Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) School of Computing's Ontology Engineering Group has developed an ontology-based semantic search engine for government procedures. Citizens can use the search engine to find information…
From ACM TechNews
Researcher Develops Self-Learning Security System For Computer Networks
University of Twente researcher Damiano Bolzoni has developed SilentDefense, an anomaly network intrusion detection system that could lead to a new generation of network security systems.
From ACM TechNews
Nasa Tests 'space Internet' Protocols on International Space Station
The University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) is collaborating with NASA on the development of a new Interplanetary Internet currently undergoing testing on the International Space Station. Disruption Tolerant Networking…
From ACM TechNews
XHTML 2 Language Dumped in Favor of HTML 5
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) will no longer develop XHTML 2, an XML-based version of HTML that would have provided capabilities for mobile systems and internationalization. Instead, the W3C will focus on HTML 5, the specification…
From ACM TechNews
'Toy niverse' Could Solve Life's Origins
The EvoGrid envisioned by Bruce Damer and a group of international advisers is a simulation of the primordial soup that they intend to use to gain insights about the development of life on Earth by studying the interaction of…
From ACM TechNews
Siggraph Announces Stereoscopic 3d Cinema and Home Theater Trends
ACM's SIGGRAPH 2009 conference will take a comprehensive look at how stereoscopic 3D will impact the movie industry as well as the home theater in the years to come. "The Computer Animation Festival programming aims to give the…
From ICT Results
Beyond
Human-computer interaction is undergoing a revolution, entering a multimodal era that goes beyond, way beyond, the WIMP (Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointers) paradigm. Now European researchers have developed a platform to speed up that…
From ACM News
Physicists Find Way to Control Individual Bits in Quantum Computers
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have overcome a hurdle in quantum computer development, having devised a viable way to manipulate a single "bit" in a quantum processor without disturbing…
From ACM News
Robot Mowers Take the Sweat Out of Lawn Care
In the summer, the grass just grows and grows and grows. And that means people must mow and mow and mow. But maybe not for long. Grass-cutting robots already exist, and more advanced ones are being developed by researchers who…
From ACM TechNews
Computer Recognizes Archaeological Material and Fake Van Goghs
Dutch researcher Laurens van der Maaten has developed an analytical technique that enables computers to better interpret and recognize the content of photos, images, and data. Van der Maaten has used his technique to distinguish…