Computer Sciences news

Understanding interaction in virtual worlds

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 23, 2009 | 3 / 5 (10) | 0

New cinema blockbuster, Avatar, leapt to the top of box office charts as soon as it came out — a stunning 3D realisation of an alien world. Our fascination with themes of escape to other fantastic places and the thrill of ...

Do computers understand art?

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 23, 2009 | 3.5 / 5 (2) | 0

A team of researchers from the University of Girona and the Max Planck Institute in Germany has shown that some mathematical algorithms provide clues about the artistic style of a painting. The composition ...

Immersive Game System Allows Physical Interaction Between Players

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 22, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (21) | 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- With a new immersive multiplayer game system, researchers are further blurring the line between gaming and the real world. Using a mouse and keyboard sounds kind of quaint compared to the ...

Computer scientists develop technique to improve helpfulness of user-generated online reviews

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 18, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Irish computer scientists have developed a system to improve the helpfulness of online customer reviews. In recognition of the quality of their work, the group received a distinguished paper award at the ...

IU informaticists show new levels of refinement in predicting human mobility, epidemic spread

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 17, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The interplay of human mobility patterns like those between local metropolitan commuters and long-range airline travelers during a global epidemic can be modeled in such detail so as to offer ...

Privacy concerns could limit benefits from real-time data analysis, researcher says

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 17, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

Society will be unable to take full advantage of real-time data analysis technologies that might improve health, reduce traffic congestion and give scientists new insights into human behavior until it resolves questions about ...

HP researchers try to tell you who your friends are

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 17, 2009 | 1 / 5 (1) | 0

Most people have scores of contacts, scattered around their mobile phone, e-mail address book and multiple social networking sites. Scientists at Hewlett-Packard can tell you which of those contacts are your closest friends.

US university coding future of news

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 16, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (3) | 0

Personalized newscasts culled from the Web and presented by digital avatars. Baseball stories written by computers using raw data.

Visit Pompeii with the Victorians in Second Life

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 16, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A 3D recreation of a Roman house in Pompeii has been built in the virtual world Second Life by Dr Shelley Hales and Dr Nic Earle from the University of Bristol.

Sign language puzzle solved

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 15, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (16) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have known for 40 years that even though it takes longer to use sign language to sign individual words, sentences can be signed, on average, in the same time it takes to say them, ...

New Algorithm Ranks Sports Teams like Google's PageRank

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 15, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (2) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Sports fans may be interested in a new system that ranks NFL and college football teams in a simple, straightforward way, similar to how Google PageRank ranks webpages. The new sports algorithm, ...

Pandemic toolkit offers flu with a view

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 14, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- As communities brace for rising wintertime influenza cases, scientists are developing a mathematical and visual analytic toolkit to help health officials quickly analyze pandemics and craft ...

Air Force grant to tighten online encryption

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 14, 2009 | 4 / 5 (1) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Computer scientist Rafael Pass is seeking new approaches to cryptographic security with a $600,000, five-year grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Glasgow's joking computer

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 11, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (11) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Glasgow Science Centre in Scotland is exhibiting a computer that makes up jokes using its database of simple language rules and a large vocabulary.

'Fighting' IED attacks with SCARE technology

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 10, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Maryland researchers have developed and successfully tested new computer software and computational techniques to analyze patterns of improvised explosive device (IED) attacks ...

Eureqa, the robot scientist (w/ Video)

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 07, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (15) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new program, Eureqa, takes raw data and formulates scientific laws to suit, and it is available by free download to all scientists.

Facebook (and Systems Biologists) Take Note: Network Analysis Reveals True Connections

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 07, 2009 | 4 / 5 (9) | 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- Facebook figures out that you know Holly, although you haven't seen her in 10 years, because you have four mutual friends -- a good predictor of direct friendship. But sometimes Facebook gets ...

Rethinking artificial intelligence: Researchers hope to produce 'co-processors' for the human mind

Technology / Computer Sciences

Dec 07, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (18) | 9

The field of artificial-intelligence research (AI), founded more than 50 years ago, seems to many researchers to have spent much of that time wandering in the wilderness, swapping hugely ambitious goals for ...