Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2013
From ACM News
Diamond Shows Promise For Quantum Internet
Today's Internet runs on linked silicon chips, but a future quantum version might be built from diamond crystals.
From ACM Opinion
20 Years On, the Open Web Faces Challenges
For people of a certain age in the technology industry, one of the ways of establishing a connection with someone is by asking some version of the following question: How long have you been online?
From ACM News
In the Fog of Battle Acoustic Sensors Pinpoint Gunfire By Measuring Air Movement
Sensors originally designed to alert pilots of single-engine planes to the location of nearby aircraft are instead finding a military role locating unseen battle threats as far away as 40 kilometers.
From ACM TechNews
Would You Like Your Assistant Human or Robotic?
Asked about assistive robots, more than half of healthcare providers would prefer assistance in the form of a robotic helper over a human.
From ACM TechNews
Squishy Robots Evolve to Run
Researchers have released a video that shows the evolution of a creature into a galloping, soft robot over 1,000 generations.
From ACM TechNews
A Touchscreen You Can Pinch, Poke and Stretch
The touch-screen display and three-dimensional display have been combined to develop the Obake screen that users can pinch, poke, and stretch.
From ACM Careers
How Pixar Made Monsters niversity, Its Latest Technological Marvel
Monsters University, the new animated film from Disney's Pixar division that debuts on June 21, will serve as light summer entertainment for most audiences. But the light-hearted, character-driven film is also a technological…
From ACM News
Herschel Completes Its 'cool' Journey in Space
The Herschel observatory, a European space telescope for which NASA helped build instruments and process data, has stopped making observations after running out of liquid coolant as expected.
From ACM News
Speed of Light May Not Be Constant, Physicists Say
The speed of light is constant, or so textbooks say. But some scientists are exploring the possibility that this cosmic speed limit changes, a consequence of the nature of the vacuum of space.
From ACM News
John Reynolds, 1935 – 2013
John C. Reynolds, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor emeritus John C. Reynolds passed away at age 77.
From ACM Careers
The Great Surveillance Boom
Video surveillance is big business. Expect it to get bigger. After law enforcement used closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to help identify last week's Boston bombing suspects, lawmakers and surveillance advocates renewed…
From ACM TechNews
Epidural Simulator Developed By Bu and Poole Hospital Will Help Reduce Risk of Harm to Patients
Researchers are developing an epidural simulator to aid in training doctors to perform epidurals and to increase patient safety.
From ACM TechNews
World's Most Human-Like Android Head
Roboticist David Hanson says his latest creation is the "world's most human-like android head."
From ACM TechNews
Software Engineers Win Bronze in Best Job Battle
The 2013 edition of CareerCast's Jobs Rated report ranks software engineer as the third best job in the world.
From ACM TechNews
Nasa ses Smartphones as Satellites
NASA is using smartphones as microprocessors for satellites.
From ACM TechNews
The Rise of Big Data
Big data is transforming the way people experience the world and enabling them to learn things that in the past would have been impossible.
From ACM TechNews
Google Glass Could Spur Wearable Tech Boom
IHS estimates that wearable-technology companies could sell up to 9.4 million devices by 2016.
From ACM TechNews
Robot-Human Interaction: Will We Bond With Bots In The Future?
As robots become more intelligent and aware, experts say people might develop emotional relationships with them.
From ACM News
Samsung Demos a Tablet Controlled By Your Brain
One day, we may be able to check email or call a friend without ever touching a screen or even speaking to a disembodied helper.
From ACM News
After Boston: The Pros and Cons of Surveillance Cameras
Even after the identification of the Boston bombing suspects through grainy security-camera images, officials say that blanketing a city in surveillance cameras can create as many problems as it solves.
From ACM News
Deep Learning
When Ray Kurzweil met with Google CEO Larry Page last July, he wasn't looking for a job.
From ACM News
The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper Versus Screens
In a viral YouTube video from October 2011 a one-year-old girl sweeps her fingers across an iPad's touchscreen, shuffling groups of icons.
From ACM TechNews
Indiana niversity Supercomputer Aims For Big Ideas
Big Red II is the fastest supercomputer owned and funded by a U.S. university, and is likely one of the world's 50 fastest.
From ACM TechNews
Google Predicts Stock-Market Crashes, Study Suggests
A new method of predicting whole stock market shifts is based on publicly available data on Google Trends search terms.
From ACM TechNews
Can Super Mario Save Artificial Intelligence?
A new program unveiled this month can learn multiple games without any specialized prior knowledge.
From ACM TechNews
World's First Smartphone For the Blind, Made in India
A National Institute of Design post-graduate student has led the development of a smartphone for the visually impaired.
From ACM TechNews
Providing Robotic Carers and Smart Systems For the Elderly
Researchers continue to improve and fine-tune an automated carer system for the elderly to make it useful, acceptable, and fun to use.
From ACM Careers
From Hackers to Security Experts, the Balkan It Sector Is Booming
After hacking the Pentagon, NASA and Britain's Royal Navy for fun, TinKode got a real job as a computer security expert for a Romanian cyber safety consultancy.
From ACM Opinion
How Ray Kurzweil Will Help Google Make the ltimate AI Brain
Google has always been an artificial intelligence company, so it really shouldn't have been a surprise that Ray Kurzweil, one of the leading scientists in the field, joined the search giant late last year.
From ACM News
Bioengineers Build Open Source Language For Programming Cells
Drew Endy wants to build a programming language for the body.