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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.


Web Tool 'as Important as Google'
From ACM TechNews

Web Tool 'as Important as Google'

Physicist Stephen Wolfram says the goal of his free Wolfram Alpha program, which will be available to the public starting in the middle of May, is to "make expert...

Computer Scientists Add Smell to Games
From ACM TechNews

Computer Scientists Add Smell to Games

Birmingham University computer scientist Bob Stone is developing artificial smell simulators that could be used to make video games more realistic or by the military...

Touch Screen Adds Tactile Pop-­p Buttons
From ACM TechNews

Touch Screen Adds Tactile Pop-­p Buttons

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers have developed sensor feedback technology that features buttons that pop out from a touch-screen surface. The technology...

Team Recreates Ancient Karnak, Brings Pharaohs' Complex to Life
From ACM TechNews

Team Recreates Ancient Karnak, Brings Pharaohs' Complex to Life

A team of more than 24 scholars and technicians at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has created the Digital Karnak, a three-dimensional (3D) simulation...

Microsoft Executive Sees Rise of Tablets, 'Room Computer'
From ACM News

Microsoft Executive Sees Rise of Tablets, 'Room Computer'

Technology that changes how people give commands to computers could make touch-based PCs more popular and transform the traditional desktop into a "room computer"...

From ACM TechNews

Companion Robots Will Improve Elderly People's Quality of Life in Smart Homes

The Companionable project is working to improve the quality of life of elderly and disabled people through robots designed to operate in intelligent homes. The...

Researchers Use Brain Interface to Post to Twitter
From ACM News

Researchers Use Brain Interface to Post to Twitter

In early April, Adam Wilson posted a status update on the social networking Web site Twitter — just by thinking about it. Just 23 characters long, his message,...

From ACM TechNews

Student Innovations Honored at Chi Conference

ACM's recent Computer-Human Interaction (CHI 2009) conference gave computing students an opportunity to show off the technology they are developing and how it could...

Robot Communicates ­sing Eye Movements Alone
From ACM TechNews

Robot Communicates ­sing Eye Movements Alone

A team at the Tokyo Institute of Technology is trying to enable humans and robots to communicate nonverbally. Yoichi Yamazaki and colleagues have developed an...

Bamboo Keyboards Expect to Bring Green Life to Computer ­sers
From ACM News

Bamboo Keyboards Expect to Bring Green Life to Computer ­sers

A company in China said it has developed a bamboo keyboard that is gaining popularity among eco-friendly consumers in Europe and North America. Jiangqiao Bamboo...

Researcher Leads Quest For Robots That Take Orders From the Brain
From ACM TechNews

Researcher Leads Quest For Robots That Take Orders From the Brain

University of Washington (UW) researcher and MacArthur Foundation Fellow recipient Yoky Matsuoka specializes in the field of neurobotics, which focuses on the development...

The Stranger Side of Chi 2009
From ACM TechNews

The Stranger Side of Chi 2009

ACM's CHI 2009, the 27th Computer-Human Interaction Conference, spotlighted many new inventions and concepts, some of which were decidedly unusual. These included...

A Twitter-Based Graphing Tool
From ACM TechNews

A Twitter-Based Graphing Tool

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Human-Computer Interaction Institute Ph.D. student Ian Li (pictured) has developed Grafitter, a Twitter-based program that lets...

Ishii Develops 'hands-On' ­ser Interfaces
From ACM TechNews

Ishii Develops 'hands-On' ­ser Interfaces

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab researcher Hiroshi Ishii is developing tactile user interfaces that are designed to integrate computer use...

From ACM TechNews

The Mobile Future of the Keyboard

Touchscreen keyboards could stand some improvement before they become the norm in smartphones and make their way to desktop computers, gaming devices, and even...

From ACM TechNews

Robot That Can Turn Cartwheels, Do Somersaults

Sherry Randhawa of Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, recently demonstrated some of the school's progress in robotics and computing. A major attraction...

The Best Computer Interfaces: Past, Present, and Future
From ACM TechNews

The Best Computer Interfaces: Past, Present, and Future

The 2009 Computer-Human Interaction conference will feature a display that recalls interfaces from the past, shows the most modern interfaces available today, and...

MIT Student Develops Wearable Interface That Relies on Hand Gestures
From ACM News

MIT Student Develops Wearable Interface That Relies on Hand Gestures

Dr. Pattie Maes, Director of the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab and Pranav Mistry (pictured), a graduate student within the same group, have developed...

Sun Dial Mobile App Alerts Muslims to Prayer
From ACM News

Sun Dial Mobile App Alerts Muslims to Prayer

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a mobile application known as Sun Dial, which alerts Muslim users when it's time to perform the...

From ACM TechNews

Vibrating Touch Screen Puts Braille at the Fingertips

Jussi Rantala of Finland's University of Tampere is working on a project that would allow the visually impaired to use touch-screen devices such as iPhones. Rantala's...
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