Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2014
From ACM Opinion
What Your Cell Phone Can't Tell the Police
On May 28th, Lisa Marie Roberts, of Portland, Oregon, was released from prison after serving nine and a half years for a murder she didn't commit.
From ACM News
The Space-Based Quantum Cryptography Race
One of the great benefits of quantum communication is the ability to send messages from one point in space to another with perfect security.
From ACM Opinion
New N.s.a. Chief Calls Damage From Snowden Leaks Manageable
The newly installed director of the National Security Agency says that while he has seen some terrorist groups alter their communications to avoid surveillance techniques revealed by Edward J. Snowden, the damage done over all…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Find and Decode the Spy Tools Governments se to Hijack Phones
A study of tools used by law enforcment and intelligence agencies to conduct surveillance on computer and mobile phone users revealed a wide range of functions.
From ACM TechNews
Rediscovered Plans Aid Edsac Reconstruction
The National Museum of Computing's reconstruction of an early British digital computer will benefit from the resurfacing of circuit diagrams of the machine.
From ACM TechNews
Hong Kong Researchers Develop 3D Tool For Surveillance Footage
A new digital system is designed to reduce the amount of time it takes investigators to search through surveillance camera footage for suspects.
From ACM TechNews
Demonstrating a Driverless Future
Researchers say they have developed one of the most advanced autonomous vehicles ever designed.
From ACM TechNews
A Versatile Joystick For Animation Artists
An artist can assemble a new input device consisting of modular building blocks into an approximate representation of any virtual character.
From ACM TechNews
The Great Salmon Run Algorithm
Researchers say a new algorithm based on the survival trials faced by salmon swimming upstream to spawn can help them find the optimal solution to a given problem.
From ACM TechNews
High-Performance Data Replication Across Cloud Servers
Computer scientists in China have developed a system that can provide high-performance data replication across cloud servers.
From ACM News
New York Subway Cell Coverage Stinks, But Here Are the Best Lines
The New York City subway system may run 24 hours a day and represent the most efficient means to get around the metropolis, but it has long been a sore spot for anyone looking to continue their cellular calls.
From ACM Opinion
Ray Kurzweil Says He's Breathing Intelligence Into Google Search
The big announcements at Google's I/O event in San Francisco Wednesday didn't mention Web search, the technology that got the company started and made it so successful. But in a small session later that day, the inventor andRay…
From ACM News
Make Robots seful By Teaching Them to Talk Like S
When Ashutosh Saxena wants some coffee or ice cream, he can ask a robot to make it for him.
From ACM News
Basic Logic Research Crucial For Computer, Software Engineering
The success of informatics would have been impossible without the groundwork provided by logicians; and, in turn, computer sciences keep posing new interesting questions, which can only be answered by formal logic.
From ACM News
Darpa's Most Challenging Robot Contest Set For June 2015
Will robots ever be able to save the day in the aftermath of a tsunami or nuclear meltdown? The U.S. military has been trying to find out.
From ACM News
The Quadriplegic Who Moved His Hand
Ian Burkhart was 19 and fearless and horsing around in the surf with friends on vacation in North Carolina’s Outer Banks when he mistimed a dive and a wave drove him headfirst into a sandbar.
From ACM Opinion
Larry Page on Google's Many Arms
One way to think of Google is as an extremely helpful, all-knowing, hyper-intelligent executive assistant.
From ACM News
E-Voting Experiments End in Norway Amid Security Fears
Norway is ending trials of e-voting systems used in national and local elections.
From ACM TechNews
How to Make Smart Watches Not Worth Stealing
A prototype device can identify someone by measuring the electrical resistance of tissues within the person's wrist.
From ACM TechNews
Computer Spots Rare Diseases in Family Photos
New software can learn to identify rare medical conditions by analyzing a face in a digital photograph.
From ACM TechNews
Collaborative Learning--For Robots
A new algorithm enables independent agents to collaborate on a machine-learning model without aggregating data.
From ACM TechNews
Riken's K Computer Tops 2014 Supercomputer Rankings
The K computer at Japan's RIKEN institute took the top spot in the 2014 Graph 500 supercomputer rankings.
From ACM TechNews
Goosebump Sensor Developed By Korean Research Team
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology researchers have developed a sensor that can measure goosebumps on the human body in real time.
From ACM News
Cassini Celebrates 10 Years Exploring Saturn
It has been a decade since a robotic traveler from Earth first soared over rings of ice and fired its engine to fall forever into the embrace of Saturn.
From ACM Opinion
Searching For Answers in Very Old Dna
As he puts it in the subtitle of his memoir, "Neanderthal Man," Svante Paabo goes in search of lost genomes.
From ACM News
How Isis Is Winning the Online War For Iraq
As the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) claimed control of Iraq's biggest oil refinery and akey border crossing between Iraq and Jordan—it lost a key propaganda weapon: its powerful smartphone app.
From ACM News
This Is What Math Equations Look Like in 3-D
The doors to MIT are always unlocked.
From ACM TechNews
niversity of Oklahoma Students Develop App That Puts Weather Knowledge on Children's Radar
Elementary and middle-school students will be able to recognize and understand severe weather thanks to a new gaming app.
From ACM TechNews
Science Dmz: Faster, More Secure High-Performance Computing
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service is planning to award a contract for the construction of a Science DMZ network.
From ACM TechNews
Internet Traffic Congestion Real, But Sporadic, Study Says
A new study suggests Internet congestion can be a problem, but it is often intermittent and temporary.