Summaries | Headlines

Software Allows Scientists Better Access To Expensive Microscopes And Telescopes Over Internet (October 12, 2007) -- Software under development is helping scientists operate big-budget research instruments -- such as high-powered microscopes and telescopes -- over the Internet, more safely and efficiently than was ... > full story

Video Conferencing Could Help Resolve Conflicts At Work And At Home (October 12, 2007) -- The latest video technology could help to resolve conflicts between employees at work, neighbors or even family members, according to researchers. At present, conciliators and mediators are called in ... > full story

How Ferroelectric Computer Memory Works (October 11, 2007) -- Chemists and engineers have performed multiscale modeling of ferroelectric domain walls and provided a new theory of behavior for domain-wall motion, the "sliding wall" that separates ferroelectric ... > full story

'Watermarks' Can Identify Pirated Internet Videos (October 10, 2007) -- For centuries, watermarks have protected written documents from forgery. Now their digital brothers are to prevent videos from being released in the Internet before their television premieres. ... > full story

Mathematicians Help Unlock Secrets Of The Immune System (October 10, 2007) -- A group of scientists, led by mathematicians, has taken on the challenge of building a common model of immune responses. Their work will radically improve our understanding of the human immune system ... > full story

Grid Computing Offers New Hope In Race Against Bird Flu (October 9, 2007) -- A new attack against the deadly bird flu virus, harnessing the combined power of more than 40,000 computers across 45 countries to boost the pace of anti-viral drug discovery, has just been launched. ... > full story

Computing Change: Researcher Traces History Of The Personal Computer (October 9, 2007) -- Carbon paper? Punch cards? What are those? The Internet, personal computers, word processing and spreadsheets are so embedded in today's society that it's hard to remember that just 35 years ago they ... > full story

Technology Would Help Detect Terrorists Before They Strike (October 9, 2007) -- Are you a terrorist? Airport screeners, customs agents, police officers and members of the military who silently pose that question to people every day, may soon have much more than intuition to ... > full story

New Prosthetic Devices Will Convert Brain Signals Into Action (October 8, 2007) -- Researchers have developed a new algorithm to help create prosthetic devices that convert brain signals into action in patients who have been paralyzed or had limbs ... > full story

Emergency Responders Will Soon Have Data From US Sensors Immediately Available (October 8, 2007) -- Today's systems of sensors that can detect radiation, chemicals and biological agents are of limited use because there is no clear-cut standard to allow the systems to share data. A new website, ... > full story

Software 'Chipper' Speeds Debugging (October 4, 2007) -- Computer scientists have developed a technique to speed up program debugging by automatically 'chipping' the software into smaller pieces so that bugs can be isolated more easily. The "Chipper" tools ... > full story

Running Shipwreck Simulations Backwards Helps Identify Dangerous Waves (October 4, 2007) -- Big waves in fierce storms have long been the focus of ship designers in simulations testing new vessels. But a new computer program and method of analysis makes it easy to see that a series of ... > full story

< more recent summaries | earlier summaries >

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

Cyber-bullying -- Cyber-bullying (cyberbullying, online bullying) is the use of electronic information and communication devices such as e-mail, instant messaging, text messages, mobile phones, pagers and defamatory ... > 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

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

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

Application software -- Application software is a subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly and thoroughly to a task that the user wishes to perform. This should be contrasted with ... > full article

Local area network -- A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small local area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings such as a home, office, or college. Current LANs are most likely to be ... > 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

Streaming media -- Streaming media is media that is consumed (read, heard, viewed) while it is being delivered. Streaming is more a property of the delivery system than the media ... > full article

Voice over IP -- Voice over Internet Protocol (also called VoIP, IP Telephony, Internet telephony, and Broadband Phone) is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP-based network. The voice ... > full article

Webcam -- A web camera (or webcam) is a real time camera whose images can be accessed using the World Wide Web, instant messaging, or a PC video calling ... > 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

Webcast -- The word webcast is derived from "web" and "broadcast". Its use has varied over the past decade by different types of organisation and as the nature of the medium came into public ... > full article

Phishing -- In computing, phishing is a criminal activity using social engineering techniques. Phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by ... > full article

Massively multiplayer online game -- A Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG or MMO) is a computer game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously, and is played on the Internet. Typically, this ... > full article

World Wide Web -- The World Wide Web ("WWW" or simply the "Web") is a global information space which people can read and write via computers connected to the Internet. The term is often mistakenly used as a synonym ... > 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

Search engine -- A search engine or search service is a document retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system, such as on the World Wide Web, inside a corporate or proprietary ... > full article

Wi-Fi -- Wi-Fi (also WiFi, Wi-fi, Wifi, or wifi) is a brand licensed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to products which pass testing demonstrating that they implement a set of product compatibility standards for ... > full article

Computer simulation -- A computer simulation or a computer model is a computer program that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system. Computer simulations have become a useful part of mathematical ... > full article