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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


3-D Images, With Only One Photon Per Pixel
From ACM News

3-D Images, With Only One Photon Per Pixel

Lidar rangefinders, which are common tools in surveying and in autonomous-vehicle control, among other applications, gauge depth by emitting short bursts of laser...

'wise Chisels': Art, Craftsmanship, and Power Tools
From ACM News

'wise Chisels': Art, Craftsmanship, and Power Tools

It's often easy to tell at a glance the difference between a mass-produced object and one that has been handcrafted: The handmade item is likely to have distinctive...

How to Program Unreliable Chips
From ACM News

How to Program Unreliable Chips

As transistors get smaller, they also become less reliable.

Big Plans For Small Spacecraft
From ACM News

Big Plans For Small Spacecraft

It's hard to miss the rocket engine in Paulo Lozano's MIT office.

Making Martian Clouds on Earth
From ACM News

Making Martian Clouds on Earth

At first glance, Mars' clouds might easily be mistaken for those on Earth: Images of the Martian sky, taken by NASA's Opportunity rover, depict gauzy, high-altitude...

New Kind of Microscope Uses Neutrons
From ACM News

New Kind of Microscope Uses Neutrons

Researchers at MIT, working with partners at NASA, have developed a new concept for a microscope that would use neutrons—subatomic particles with no electrical...

Artificial-Intelligence Research Revives Its Old Ambitions
From ACM News

Artificial-Intelligence Research Revives Its Old Ambitions

The birth of artificial-intelligence research as an autonomous discipline is generally thought to have been the monthlong Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial...

Terramechanics Research Aims to Keep Mars Rovers Rolling
From ACM News

Terramechanics Research Aims to Keep Mars Rovers Rolling

In May 2009, the Mars rover Spirit cracked through a crusty layer of Martian topsoil, sinking into softer underlying sand.

Views You Can ­se? How Online Ratings Affect Your Judgment
From ACM News

Views You Can ­se? How Online Ratings Affect Your Judgment

Are you influenced by the opinions of other people—say, in the comments sections of websites?

Writing Programs Using Ordinary Language
From ACM News

Writing Programs Using Ordinary Language

In a pair of recent papers, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have demonstrated that, for a few specific tasks, it's...

New System ­ses Low-Power Wi-Fi Signal to Track Moving Humans—even Behind Walls
From ACM News

New System ­ses Low-Power Wi-Fi Signal to Track Moving Humans—even Behind Walls

The comic-book hero Superman uses his X-ray vision to spot bad guys lurking behind walls and other objects.

Seeing the Human Pulse
From ACM News

Seeing the Human Pulse

Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a new algorithm that can accurately measure the heart rates of people...

Making Quantum Encryption Practical
From ACM News

Making Quantum Encryption Practical

One of the many promising applications of quantum mechanics in the information sciences is quantum key distribution (QKD) in which the counterintuitive behavior...

Valuing Versatility
From ACM News

Valuing Versatility

It's often said that we live in an age of increased specialization: physicians who treat just one ailment, scholars who study just one period, network administrators...

Teaching Robots Lateral Thinking
From ACM News

Teaching Robots Lateral Thinking

Many commercial robotic arms perform what roboticists call "pick and place" tasks: The arm picks up an object in one location and places it in another.

Predicting What Topics Will Trend on Twitter
From ACM News

Predicting What Topics Will Trend on Twitter

Twitter's home page features a regularly updated list of topics that are "trending," meaning that tweets about them have suddenly exploded in volume.

3 Questions: A Web For Everyone
From ACM Opinion

3 Questions: A Web For Everyone

During the opening ceremonies of this summer’s Olympic games in London, a musical performance culminated with a stage-set house rising into the rafters to reveal...

Automatic Building Mapping Could Help Emergency Responders
From ACM News

Automatic Building Mapping Could Help Emergency Responders

MIT researchers have built a wearable sensor system that automatically creates a digital map of the environment through which the wearer is moving.

Making Web Applications More Efficient
From ACM News

Making Web Applications More Efficient

Most major Websites these days maintain huge databases: Shopping sites have databases of inventory and customer ratings, travel sites have databases of seat availability...

Self-Sculpting Sand
From ACM News

Self-Sculpting Sand

Imagine that you have a big box of sand in which you bury a tiny model of a footstool.
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