ACM TechNews, Friday, November 8, 2024

Welcome to the November 8, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

TikTok Ordered to Close Canada Unit due to National Security Risk

Canada has ordered ByteDance Ltd. to close its Canadian TikTok subsidiary, following a national security review and advice from Canada’s security and intelligence agencies. This comes after a bipartisan bill was passed in the U.S. in April forcing ByteDance to divest its TikTok ownership stake or face a U.S. ban. Canada's order will not prevent Canadians from using the social video app.
[ » Read full article *May Require Paid Registration ]

Rover Helps Find Evidence of Ancient Martian Shoreline

Scientists on Thursday said data obtained by China's Zhurong rover and by orbiting spacecraft identified the presence of geological features indicative of an ancient coastline on Mars. The researchers said data from China's Tianwen-1 Orbiter, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the robotic six-wheeled rover indicated the existence of a water ocean during a period when the planet might already have become cold and dry and lost much of its atmosphere.
[ » Read full article ]

Bioprinter Rapidly Mimics Tissues from Brain to Bone

A 3D bioprinting technique developed by researchers at Australia's University of Melbourne can rapidly create accurate analogues of virtually any human tissue. The platform uses an optical-based system in which vibrating bubbles 3D-print cellular structures in seconds. The researchers said the technique enables more accurate cell positioning for better replication of human tissue.
[ » Read full article ]

Low-cost System Detects Wildfires Within Seconds of Ignition

A crowdsourcing system developed by researchers at the University of Southern California reduces wildfire mapping time from hours to seconds, using a network of low-cost mobile phones mounted on properties at high risk for wildfires. Advanced computer vision models analyze data from the phones’ cameras and sensors. In computer simulations, the FireLoc system could detect fires igniting from up to 3,000 feet away and accurately map wildfires to within 180 feet of their origin.
[ » Read full article ]

Software Allows Processing in Memory, Bypassing CPU

Software developed by researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology enables computers to perform processing directly in memory, bypassing the central processing unit (CPU). The researchers developed a platform called PyPIM, which combines the Python programming language with digital processing-in-memory (PIM) technology. The researchers demonstrated that using PyPIM for various mathematical and algorithmic tasks resulted in significantly faster processing with minimal code changes.
[ » Read full article ]

Roblox Announces Safety Features for Under-13s

Online gaming platform Roblox is introducing additional safety features for children under the age of 13. Starting Nov. 18, pre-teens will be barred from accessing online spaces where players can talk to each other by text and voice. From the same date, under-13s will also be unable to use "free-form 2D user creation," which allows users to draw or write in 2D and replicate those creations to other users without the completed creation going through Roblox moderation.
[ » Read full article ]

Portable Light System Digitizes Everyday Objects

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley, and Denmark's Aarhus University developed a portable light system and design tool that can digitally alter the color and textures of different objects. PortaChrome features ultraviolet and red, green, and blue LEDs and can wrap around various objects, which are made reprogrammable (their appearances may be altered digitally) with a photochromic dye.
[ » Read full article ]

German Law Could Protect Cybersecurity Researchers

Germany's Federal Ministry of Justice has drafted legislation that would protect security researchers who discover and report security flaws to vendors. For researchers to qualify for protection, their action must aim to identify a vulnerability or security risk in an IT system and they must have the intent of reporting the vulnerability to those responsible for addressing the issue.
[ » Read full article ]

South Korea Fights Deepfake Porn Surge

Officials announced several steps to curb a surge in deepfake porn in South Korea, including tougher punishment for offenders, the expanded use of undercover officers, and tougher regulations on social media platforms. Concerns of deepfakes grew after unconfirmed lists of schools with victims spread online in August. In response, many girls and women removed photos and videos from their social media accounts.
[ » Read full article ]

Air Fryers May Be Spying on Consumers

U.K. consumer rights group Which? has found evidence of “excessive smart device surveillance” from Chinese air fryers and other products. Which? reported that smart air fryers from Xiaomi, Cosori, and Aigostar all wanted to know customers’ precise locations, and sought permission to record audio on a user’s phone. It also found that products from Aigostar and Xiaomi sent personal user data to servers in China.
[ » Read full article ]

Amazon Gets FAA Approval for New Delivery Drone

Amazon received regulatory approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to begin flying a smaller, quieter version of its delivery drone, including permission to fly longer distances and beyond the visual line of sight of pilots. The FAA granted a similar waiver for Amazon’s Prime Air program in May, though that was limited to flights in College Station, TX. Residents there, however, complained about the noise levels, prompting the city’s mayor to mention those concerns in a letter to the FAA.
[ » Read full article ]

Low-Cost, Scalable Passive Sensors

University of California (UC) San Diego researchers repurposed radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to perform battery-free passive sensing and tracking. Explains UC San Diego's Nagarjun Bhat (pictured), "You don't need any fancy interfaces, specialized readers, or batteries to access the data — all you need are some commercially available RFID tags, antennas, and readers."
[ » Read full article ]

Yonsei University Launches South Korea's First Quantum Computing Hub

Yonsei University established South Korea's first quantum computing hub with a 127-qubit IBM quantum computer. Yonsei's Quantum Computing Center in Songdo will commence full operations on Nov. 20, with a focus on biotech applications. A quantum research complex is under development near the quantum computing center, which will provide workspace for companies to use quantum computing resources and engage in projects with academic researchers.
[ » Read full article ]