Summaries | Headlines

Software Patch Makes Car More Fuel-efficient (March 1, 2007) -- A car wastes energy almost continuously. Accelerating a little less or a little bit more than the optimal performance can cause considerable loss of energy. John Kessels has designed a way to save ... > full story

Second Humanoid Robot In France Welcomed (February 28, 2007) -- The CNRS, the LIRMM and the University of Montpellier, France, have just received the fruit of a Japanese French collaboration (JRL) -- two humanized robots. Human size they will help develop the ... > full story

Study To Forecast Side Effects Of Pollution Policy (February 23, 2007) -- The University of Michigan is leading a four-university team in a large-scale project to develop software to help analysts craft greenhouse gas reduction policies in the transportation ... > full story

Photo Software Creates 3-D World (February 19, 2007) -- Experimental software developed by UW and Microsoft computer scientists, called Photo Tourism, turns the surfeit of images into a benefit. Hundreds of photos of a single scene can be mapped into a ... > full story

Air Contaminants Databases Ease Healthy Homes Planning (February 19, 2007) -- Air pollution sources are everywhere in the home, from the bacon and eggs frying in the kitchen, to the woodburning stove in the family room, the newly painted hallway, and even the carpet in the ... > full story

Sensor Networks Protect Containers, Navigate Robots (February 14, 2007) -- Agent 007 is a mighty versatile fellow, but he would have to take backseat to agents being trained at Washington University in St. Louis. Computer scientist engineers here are using wireless sensor ... > full story

Facial Composite Systems Falling Short (February 11, 2007) -- The mention of facial composites often conjures up images of a sinister criminal, skillfully depicted by a sketch artist using pencil and paper. In reality, the vast majority of law enforcement ... > full story

Researchers Invent System To Control And Quarantine Worms Attacking Computer Networks (February 9, 2007) -- A new anti-worm technology developed by Penn State researchers can not only identify and contain worms milliseconds after a cyber attack, but can also release the information if the quarantine turns ... > full story

Finding Patterns Of Importance In A Deluge Of Data (January 10, 2007) -- Two Dartmouth engineers think that PQS, or process query systems, are the way to go to make sense of the huge volume of data we collect each day from computer network monitors, video surveillance ... > full story

NASA Mars Team Teaches Old Rovers New Tricks To Kick Off Year Four (January 3, 2007) -- NASA's twin Mars rovers, nearing the third anniversary of their landings, are getting smarter as they get older. The unexpected longevity of Spirit and Opportunity is giving the space agency a chance ... > full story

New Computer Program Prevents Crashes And Hacker Attacks (January 3, 2007) -- Today's computers have more than 2,000 times as much memory as the machines of yesteryear, yet programmers are still writing code as if memory is in short supply. Not only does this make programs ... > full story

Genomic Variation Easier To Identify With 'Microinversions' Software (December 30, 2006) -- Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, and Brown University have created a software system that more accurately detects "microinversions," mutations that consist of tiny ... > full story

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Application software -- Application software is a loosely defined subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly to a task that the user wishes to ... > full article

Computer software -- Software is a program that enables a computer to perform a specific task, as opposed to the physical components of the system (hardware). This includes application software such as a word processor, ... > full article

User interface design -- User interface design or user interface engineering is the design of computers, gadgets, appliances, machines, mobile communication devices, software applications, and websites with the focus on the ... > full article

Graph drawing -- As a branch of graph theory, Graph drawing applies topology and geometry to derive two- and three-dimensional representations of graphs. Graph drawing is motivated by applications such as VLSI ... > full article

Security engineering -- Security engineering is the field of engineering dealing with the security and integrity of real-world systems. It is similar to systems engineering in that its motivation is to make a system meet ... > full article

Malware -- Malware ("malicious software") is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system, without the owner's consent. The term describes the intent of the creator, rather than any particular ... > full article

Computing -- Originally, the word computing was synonymous with counting and calculating, and a science that deals with the original sense of computing mathematical ... > full article

Videoconferencing -- A videoconference (also known as a videoteleconference) is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions ... > full article

Data mining -- Data mining, also known as knowledge-discovery in databases (KDD), is the practice of automatically searching large stores of data for patterns. To do this, data mining uses computational techniques ... > full article

Morphing -- Morphing is a special effect in motion pictures and animations that changes (or morphs) one image into another through a seamless transition. Morphing software continues to advance today and many ... > full article

Graphical user interface -- A graphical user interface (or GUI, often pronounced "gooey"), is a particular case of user interface for interacting with a computer which employs graphical images and widgets in addition to text to ... > full article

Computer virus -- A computer virus is a self-replicating computer program written to alter the way a computer operates, without the permission or knowledge of the user. Though the term is commonly used to refer to a ... > full article

Computer security -- Computer security is a field of computer science concerned with the control of risks related to computer use. The means traditionally taken to realize this objective is to attempt to create a ... > full article

Scientific visualization -- Scientific and Information visualization are branches of computer graphics and user interface which are concerned with the presentation of interactive or animated digital images to users to ... > full article

Instant messaging -- Instant messaging is the act of instantly communicating between two or more people over a network such as the ... > full article

Speech recognition -- Speech recognition technologies allow computers equipped with a source of sound input, such as a microphone, to interpret human speech. The challenge for developers of Automatic Speech ... > full article

Computer animation -- Computer animation is the art of creating moving images via the use of computers. It is a subfield of computer graphics and animation. Increasingly it is created by means of 3D computer graphics, ... > full article

3D computer graphics -- 3D computer graphics are works of graphic art that were created with the aid of digital computers and specialized 3D software. In general, the term may also refer to the process of creating such ... > full article

Aspect-oriented programming -- In software engineering, the programming paradigm of aspect-oriented programming (AOP), also called aspect-oriented software development (AOSD), attempts to aid programmers in the separation of ... > full article

Computer insecurity -- Many current computer systems have only limited security precautions in place. Serious financial damage has been caused by computer security breaches, but reliably estimating costs is quite ... > full article