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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.


From ACM TechNews

Navigation App Gives You Freedom to Explore

Swansea University's Simon Robinson and colleagues have developed a smartphone navigation application that gives pedestrians the opportunity to explore unfamiliar...

Cern Collides With a Patent Reality
From ACM TechNews

Cern Collides With a Patent Reality

Previously reluctant to patent the inventions, the CERN particle physics laboratory  recently struck a deal with the World Intellectual Property Organization to...

From ACM News

Steampunk Chip Takes the Heat

Steampunk, the reimagining of modern day technology through a Victorian perspective, has found an unlikely follower in the US Defense Advanced Research Projects...

Shape-Shifting Robot Compensates For Damaged Limb
From ACM TechNews

Shape-Shifting Robot Compensates For Damaged Limb

European roboticists have developed software that enables a modular robot to adapt when one part stops working. 

From ACM News

Cern Collides with a Patent Reality

You might imagine that vast patent royalties flow into the organisation that invented the touchscreen and the World Wide Web. But the atom-smashing outfit CERN...

Wonder Conductors Will Spin ­p Cooler Computers
From ACM News

Wonder Conductors Will Spin ­p Cooler Computers

Newly discovered materials called topological insulators could clear the way for blisteringly fast laptops and smartphones that don't warm your lap or singe your...

The Mind's Eye: How the Brain Sorts Out What You See
From ACM News

The Mind's Eye: How the Brain Sorts Out What You See

Can you tell a snake from a pretzel? Some can't—and their experiences are revealing how the brain builds up a coherent picture of the world.

From ACM TechNews

Shake to Adjust Your Smartphone's Privacy Settings

Open University's Lukasz Jedrzejczyk led the development of Privacy Shake, an application that enables users with global positioning system-enabled smartphones...

From ACM News

Apple Reinvents the Audio Jack

Although Apple is known for filing patents on complex multi-touch algorithms, anti-piracy measures and advanced user interfaces, it still has a focus on basic...

Online Games Are a Gold Mine for Design Ideas
From ACM News

Online Games Are a Gold Mine for Design Ideas

Gone are the days when video gaming was a private pursuit. Gaming services such as Microsoft's Xbox Live not only connect players in living rooms the world over...

From ACM News

Flawed Proof ­shers In Era of Wikimath

His prospects of answering one of the biggest questions in mathematics may be fading, but Vinay Deolalikar of Hewlett-Packard Labs in Palo Alto, California, may...

Atom Images Raise Quantum Computer Hopes
From ACM News

Atom Images Raise Quantum Computer Hopes

Fast quantum computers made of atoms trapped by beams of light could be a step closer, thanks to the first images of the individual atoms in such a grid.

From ACM News

Tide Turns Against Million-Dollar Maths Proof

Initially hailed as a solution to the biggest question in computer science, the latest attempt to prove P ≠ NP—otherwise known as the "P vs NP" problem—seems to...

From ACM News

Hiding Files in Flickr Pics Will Fool Web Censors

Life is about to become more difficult for countries trying to censor access to foreign Websites. A system dubbed Collage will allow users in these countries...

Gesture-Based Computing Takes a Serious Turn
From ACM News

Gesture-Based Computing Takes a Serious Turn

Call me a creature of habit, but I approach any new computer interface with a sense of apprehension.

'god Couldn't Do Faster': Rubik's Cube Mystery Solved
From ACM News

'god Couldn't Do Faster': Rubik's Cube Mystery Solved

It has taken 15 years to get to this point, but it is now clear that every possible scrambled arrangement of the Rubik's cube can be solved in a maximum of 20...

From ACM News

P ? Np? It's Bad News For the Power of Computing

Has the biggest question in computer science been solved? On 6 August, Vinay Deolalikar, a mathematician at Hewlett-Packard Labs in Palo Alto, California, sentdraft...

Future on Display: Technology You'll Want to Stroke
From ACM News

Future on Display: Technology You'll Want to Stroke

Whatever you might expect from the latest computer technology, fur is unlikely to be one of them.

Virtual Walkers Lead the Way for Robots
From ACM News

Virtual Walkers Lead the Way for Robots

Children do it with ease, but walking on two feet is challenging for robots. And while animated characters stroll along quite happily, they rarely look human...

Artificial Life Forms Evolve Basic Intelligence
From ACM News

Artificial Life Forms Evolve Basic Intelligence

For generations, the Avidians have been cloning themselves quietly in a box. They're not perfect, but most of their mutations go unnoticed. Then something remarkable...
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