Communications of the ACM
A Healthy Dose of AI
Building artificial intelligence into medical devices can speed diagnoses and potentially improve treatments and outcomes.
From ACM NewsAn 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
Rise of the Robot Astronomers
Mount Palomar Observatory's Palomar Transient Factory uses AI to locate variable stars, or transients. "Our grand goal is to remove astronomers from the real-time...
From ACM TechNews
Metamorphosis Key to Creating Stable Walking Robots
A study to find the quickest way to evolve walking behaviors in virtual robots was conducted by University of Vermont researcher Josh Bongard. He ran simulations...
From ACM TechNews
Mimic-Bots Learn to Do As We Do
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea have developed a robotic system that responds to the actions of the person...
From ACM TechNews
Part Moth, Part Machine: Cyborgs Are on the Move
Researchers are developing methods to produce complex behavior from robots by tapping into the nervous system of living organisms and using algorithms that already...
From ACM TechNews
Prizewinning Chatbot Steers the Conversation
A chatbot named Suzette recently won the Loebner prize, awarded for a version of the Turing Test, because the system successfully fooled a human judge into thinking...
From ACM News
Better Hands May Help Robots Grasp Meaning
Two recent studies show that roboticists are applying some fresh thinking to the building and operation of robot hands, and a third suggests why the work is so...
From ACM News
Robot Arm Punches Human to Obey Asimov's Rules
Isaac Asimov would probably have been horrified at the experiments under way in a robotics lab in Slovenia. There, a powerful robot has been hitting people over...
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
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
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...
From ACM News
Drone Alone: How Airliners May Lose Their Pilots
Would you fly in an airliner knowing there were no pilots in the cockpit? This is no mere hypothetical question. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is taking...
From ACM TechNews
Lizard-Like Robot Can 'swim' Through Sand
Inspired by the sandfish lizard, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are collaborating with Northwestern University's Paul Umbanhowar to develop...
From ACM TechNews
Computerized Critics Could Find the Music You'll Like
University of California, San Diego artificial intelligence researcher Luke Barrington is developing software that can analyze a piece of music and compile information...
From ACM News
Immortal Avatars: Back Up Your Brain, Never Die
Zoe Graystone is a girl with two brains. Only one of them is human: the other is an exact digital copy that has become conscious in its own right. When the human...
From ACM TechNews
Teaching Robots Some Manners
People are more likely to adapt to and use robots if they behave more like humans, even if that means they operate less efficiently.
From ACM TechNews
What Would It Take to Put a Walking Robot on the Moon?
Astro-Technology SOHLA, a small cooperative of companies in Osaka, Japan, wants to put an autonomous humanoid robot on the moon.
From ACM News
Army of Smartphone Chips Could Emulate the Human Brain
If you have a smartphone, you probably have a slice of Steve Furber's brain in your pocket. By the time you read this, his 1-billion-neuron silicon brain will be...
From ACM TechNews
Robots With Skin Enter Our Touchy-Feely World
A team at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in May will circulate to various labs the first components of a touch-sensitive skin for their iCub humanoid...
From ACM News
Robots Look to the Cloud for Enlightenment
With the phrase "web 2.0" falling out of vogue, the most exciting new uses of the internet are now all about the cloud, a term for servers invisibly doing smart...
From ACM News