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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 News

Self-Assembling Minirobots Swim and Manipulate Objects

Tiny, self-assembling robots can swim and clamp onto particles and then release them when subjected to the right magnetic fields.

Futurist Ray Kurzweil Says He Can Bring His Dead Father Back to Life Through a Computer Avatar
From ACM News

Futurist Ray Kurzweil Says He Can Bring His Dead Father Back to Life Through a Computer Avatar

Ray Kurzweil, a prominent inventor and "futurist" who has long predicted that mind and machine will one day merge, has been making arrangements to talk to his...

Future of War: Private Robot Armies Fight It Out
From ACM News

Future of War: Private Robot Armies Fight It Out

If robots are simply computers with wings (and missiles), then expect to see future wars fought by the descendants of flash-trading algorithms, with humans as...

NASA Mars Rover Arrives at New Site on Martian Surface
From ACM News

NASA Mars Rover Arrives at New Site on Martian Surface

After a journey of almost three years, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached the Red Planet’s Endeavour crater to study rocks never seen before...

Computers Are Not Humans
From ACM TechNews

Computers Are Not Humans

The meaning that humans associate with words, phrases, sentences, and stories is grounded in human experience, writes David Ferrucci, lead researcher for IBM's...

Building Robots that Understand Human Emotions and Make People Healthier
From ACM News

Building Robots that Understand Human Emotions and Make People Healthier

 For most of us, the closest we get to a robot in daily life is a Roomba. But Dr. Cynthia Breazeal, director of the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab...

Costly Drone Is Poised to Replace ­-2 Spy Plane
From ACM News

Costly Drone Is Poised to Replace ­-2 Spy Plane

Tucked away here in the Mojave Desert, the assembly plant for the high-flying Global Hawk jet resembles a giant hobby shop. Work tables surround a handful of...

Diy Spy Drone Sniffs Wi-Fi, Intercepts Phone Calls
From ACM News

Diy Spy Drone Sniffs Wi-Fi, Intercepts Phone Calls

What do you do when the target you’re spying on slips behind his home-security gates and beyond your reach? Launch your personal, specially equipped WASP drone—short...

David Ferrucci, Lead Researcher of Ibm's Watson Project
From ACM News

David Ferrucci, Lead Researcher of Ibm's Watson Project

How do you improve on a computer that beat the world's best Jeopardy! players? Have Watson team up with humanity.

Here's How U.s. Spies Will Find You Through Your Pics
From ACM News

Here's How U.s. Spies Will Find You Through Your Pics

Iarpa, the intelligence community’s way-out research shop, wants to know where you took that vacation picture over the Fourth of July. It wants to know where...

From ACM News

­s. And Them.

Someone types a command into a laptop, and Actroid-DER jerks upright with a shudder and a wheeze. Compressed air flows beneath silicone skin, triggering actuators...

Someday Your Brain Could Brake For You
From ACM News

Someday Your Brain Could Brake For You

Many high-end cars today come equipped with brake assist systems, which help a driver use the brakes correctly depending on particular conditions in an emergency...

What Will We Watch As Drones Evolve?
From ACM News

What Will We Watch As Drones Evolve?

Every week it seems there are reports about U.S. drones—unmanned, remote-controlled aerial vehicles—tracking down suspected terrorists in remote, unreachable...

Will Insect-Like Flying Machines Revolutionize Surveillance?
From ACM News

Will Insect-Like Flying Machines Revolutionize Surveillance?

Research at the University of Oxford is playing a key role in the development of revolutionary insect-sized vehicles with micro-cameras, suitable for different...

Exploring Space with Chip-Size Satellites
From ACM News

Exploring Space with Chip-Size Satellites

Gravity may be woven into the very fabric of space-time, but some objects seem nearly immune to its pull. Scale something down to the size of a dust particle...

Caltech Researchers Create the First Artificial Neural Network Out of Dna
From ACM TechNews

Caltech Researchers Create the First Artificial Neural Network Out of Dna

Caltech researchers have developed an artificial neural network out of DNA, creating a circuit of interacting molecules that can recall memories based on incomplete...

Robots Use Kinect to Understand Our World
From ACM TechNews

Robots Use Kinect to Understand Our World

Cornell University researchers are teaching robots to understand the context of their surroundings so that they can pick out individual objects in a room. 

Ibm's Watson Breaks New Ground in Artificial Intelligence
From ACM TechNews

Ibm's Watson Breaks New Ground in Artificial Intelligence

One of the major challenges that the computer science industry has been facing is the development of a machine that can answer unmodified human questions. 

Nasa's Next Mars Rover to Land at Gale Crater
From ACM News

Nasa's Next Mars Rover to Land at Gale Crater

NASA's next Mars rover will land at the foot of a layered mountain inside the planet's Gale crater. The car-sized Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity, is scheduled...

From ACM News

Robots ­se Kinect to ­nderstand Our World

Picture the scene, a few years from now. "Robot, fetch me that pillow over there," you say to your ever-willing butlerbot. "Certainly sir," it replies. "What's...
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