Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2014
From ACM TechNews
As Software and Hardware Advance Together, the Next Innovation Wave Rises
As processors and sensors have become smaller and found their way into everything from cars to traffic lights to smoke detectors, software developers have kept pace.
From ACM News
Nasa to Send Sample-Return Mission to Earth-Bound Asteroid
NASA has long wanted to send a mission to Mars to grab some of its surface and sling it back to Earth.
From ACM News
Where to Grab Space Debris
Objects in space tend to spin—and spin in a way that's totally different from the way they spin on earth.
From ACM News
'smart Genes' Prove Elusive
Scientists looking for the genes underlying intelligence are in for a slog.
From ACM News
Map of Body's Protein-Folding Machinery Wins a Major Medical Prize
It's speculation season once again for Nobel Prize watchers.
From ACM News
Google Is Target of European Backlash on .s. Tech Dominance
A top German official called for Google to be broken up.
From ACM TechNews
Smartphones Pioneered For se in Parkinson's Disease Detection
Researchers are working to make it possible to use smartphones to collect information on how the symptoms of degenerative diseases change on an hourly basis.
From ACM TechNews
Google Glass Can Now Track Your Stress Level
Researchers say they have developed a new method for using Google Glass to track a user's stress level and provide instant fitness feedback.
From ACM TechNews
China Develops Facial Recognition Payment System With Near-Perfect Accuracy
The Chinese Academy of Science plans to unveil a face-recognition payment application with near-perfect accuracy next year.
From ACM TechNews
Crowdsourcing Competitions Encourage Malicious Behavior, Study Finds
A new study has found that crowdsourcing competitions produce some of the worst competitive tendencies in people.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Advance Artificial Intelligence For Player Goal Prediction in Gaming
New artificial intelligence software that improves the technology's ability to predict player actions in video games could be a key to enhancing player experiences.
From ACM TechNews
Kbase Harnesses Gene Data For Researchers
A computational platform developed by the U.S. Department of Energy's national research laboratories will make complex analysis of gene data more efficient.
From ACM News
No Easy Parking Spot For First-Ever Comet Landing
Landing on a comet will be even harder than we thought.
From ACM News
The Amazon.com of Stolen Credit Cards Makes It All So Easy
On Sept. 1, the website Rescator.cc alerted customers to a big new batch of product about to hit its digital shelves. "Load your accounts and prepare for an avalanche of cash!" a post on its News page read.
From ACM News
It Certifications Pay Off, If Chosen Wisely
The proper certification can help you get a job, a raise, and sometimes a promotion.
From ACM Opinion
Our Cyborg Future
In June 2014, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Riley v. California, in which the justices unanimously ruled that police officers may not, without a warrant, search the data on a cell phone seized during an arrest…
From ACM TechNews
Manual Control
Mezzanine is a collaborative-conferencing system that enables multiple users to share and control digital content from any device using gesture controls.
From ACM TechNews
A Low-Energy Optical Circuit For a New Era of Technology
Researchers say a new building-block for photonic transistors that requires very little energy to operate is a major breakthrough in optical circuits.
From ACM TechNews
Code Generation: Kids Who Program Before They Can Read
Schools in England this month are embarking on one of the most ambitious efforts in the ongoing campaign to teach children to code.
From ACM News
Loneliness Narrows the Uncanny Valley
Talking to inanimate objects when you're feeling lonely may not be so strange after all.
From ACM News
Airlines Take the Bump Out of Turbulence
Just a few years ago, airlines got their weather reports by telex.
From ACM Opinion
The Man Who Will Build Google's Elusive Quantum Computer
John Martinis is one of the world's foremost experts on quantum computing, a growing field of science that aims to process information at super high speeds using strange physics of very tiny particles such as electrons and photons…
From ACM News
NASA Instrument on Rosetta: First Science Results
A NASA instrument aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta orbiter has successfully made its first delivery of science data from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
From ACM TechNews
Vicki Hanson Recognized For Outstanding Contributions to Accessibility and Computing
ACM has awarded the 2014 SIGACCESS Outstanding Contributions award to Rochester Institute of Technology professor Vicki Hanson.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Send Electricity, Light Along Same Super-Thin Wire
Researchers have developed a basic model circuit consisting of a silver nanowire and a single-layer flake of molybdenum disulfide.
From ACM TechNews
Fabric Circuits Pave the Way For Wearable Tech
Researchers at Hong Kong's Institute of Textiles and Clothing have developed what they call a fabric circuit board, a textile threaded with electrical wiring.
From ACM TechNews
Fingerprinting Infants Helps Track Vaccinations in Developing Countries
Developing countries could be able to track pediatric vaccinations with greater accuracy using a fingerprint-scanning system.
From ACM TechNews
SideSwipe: UW Team Uses In-Air Gestures for Phones
University of Washington in Seattle researchers have developed a system that enables in-air gestures above and around a mobile device.
From ACM TechNews
Networked Home Gadgets Offer Hackers New Opportunities
Connecting a new home appliance to a personal Wi-Fi network or broadband modem could increase the risk that data will be taken from other computers in the house.
From ACM TechNews
Social Networking Accord
A new computational model for reaching consensus in a broad spectrum of situations is based on analysis of communication patterns in social networks.