Communications of the ACM articles from August 1997

Communications of the ACM archives from August 1997

Privacy lost, anytime, anywhere. (impact of video surveillance)
August 1, 1997... The loss of privacy is on the fast track, and the Internet is an all too willing co-conspirator. At every turn, more and more of the details of our public and private lives are in some way made "fit" for online consumption. The range is...

Who governs the Internet?
August 1, 1997... A long with the Internet's emergence as a valuable world resource, a debate has developed over how to ensure it continues to function despite its rapid scaling, technical innovation, and intense commercial competition. If its governance depends...

Still no match for the human brain. (second match between Kasparov and chess computer Deep Blue)
August 1, 1997... Chess is a sea where an elephant might bathe and gnat may drink. - Indian Proverb Those of us not terrified by the computer's role in Hollywood's movies are reassured by the knowledge that computers are really quite dumb. While computers...

AI lessons. (artificial intelligence; IBM's Deep Blue chess computer)
August 1, 1997... In commenting on the recent chess match between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, IBM has avoided speaking of AI, focusing almost exclusively on its large parallel processor that examines about 1.8 X [10.sup.10] positions in each three minutes (the...

Socializing around arcade technology. (evolution of video game arcade technology)
August 1, 1997... The virtual arcade in all its high-tech splendor has ushered in a new era in interactive entertainment. There was once a time when you could walk into a game arcade, drop a quarter into the slot of a pinball machine, and with a spring-action...

Overcoming phobias by virtual exposure. (phobia treatment by virtual reality technology)
August 1, 1997... It is not surprising that phobia treatment would be one of the first successful mental health uses for VR. The sense of being immersed in another setting is particularly valuable in exposure therapy, a treatment technique for phobias. Exposure...

Health and safety issues for VR. (virtual reality)
August 1, 1997... Health and safety issues for users of virtual environments can be divided into physiological effects and psychological effects. The physiological effects are best examined by looking at human body systems and mechanisms. Many of the health and...

Applying VR to physical medicine and rehabilitation. (virtual reality)
August 1, 1997... The field of VR is still at the proof-of-concept stage, yet there is a growing number of potential clinical applications in the fields of physical medicine and rehabilitation that make effective use of VR technology. Previously, our research...

Augmented reality and Parkinson's disease. (therapeutic applications of virtual reality)
August 1, 1997... Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a movement disorder associated with untimely deterioration of neurons in the motor control areas of the brain (primarily the basal ganglia). Akinesia, or freezing gait, is a common symptom of PD. It is characterized by...

Rehabilitative environments for attention and movement disorders.
August 1, 1997... In some respects, VR has been a technology in search of an application. Recently much emphasis has been placed on the potential for the use of VR in medical contexts. In general the attention and speculation have been concerned with either remote...

VR education and rehabilitation. (virtual reality)
August 1, 1997... VR technology was originally developed by the military in the 1960s to help train pilots. This was useful because in VR, dangerous situations could be simulated without risking personal injury or loss of expensive equipment. Understandably, the...

VR meets physical therapy. (virtual reality)
August 1, 1997... If you've ever needed physical therapy, you know the process is at best repetitive, and at worst, painful and boring. Imagine the challenges if you were partially paralyzed by a stroke and facing months of repetitious exercises and therapy....

Responsive virtual environments. (treatment of people with brain injury through virtual reality technology)
August 1, 1997... Responsive and empathic awareness is known to facilitate and enhance numerous human activities, especially learning and therapy. Empathy, moreover, has been described as a clinical skill, fundamental to all areas of the medical profession [10]....

The psychometrics of cybersickness.
August 1, 1997... The aftereffects from exposures to virtual environments have often been evaluated using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) [1], which was originally devised to evaluate computer-based simulator systems. The SSQ consists of a checklist of...

Treating body-image disturbances.
August 1, 1997... Body image has a long and well-known association with eating and weight-related problems. One index of the importance of body-image disturbance involves its relevance to agreed-on clinical disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of...

Virtual environments in special-needs education.
August 1, 1997... Since 1991, the Virtual Reality Applications Research Team (VIRART) has been specifying, building and evaluating VEs for educational applications. In the Learning in Virtual Environments (LIVE) program, the understanding of user needs and of how...

VR and spatial awareness in disabled children. (virtual reality)
August 1, 1997... Children with disabilities that limit their movement are known to develop relatively poor spatial skills. Children with cerebral palsy, childhood arthritis, and other motoric disorders frequently experience difficulty in finding their way about...

Health care information systems.
August 1, 1997... A revolution is taking place in the health care field with information technology (IT) playing an increasingly important role in its delivery. The industry spent between $12 billion and $16 billion on IT in 1996. Further exponential growth is...

Clearing the way for physician's use of clinical information systems.
August 1, 1997... If we build it, will they come? It's been difficult convincing doctors to interact with online opportunities, but advances in integrated physician-friendly systems are clearly gaining attention. For almost three decades computer-based...

Privacy, information technology, and health care.
August 1, 1997... One of the most controversial issues in recent years is how technology threatens the privacy of patient information. Today, several technologies and methods exist to better protect that personal data. We are well into the digital information...

Using the Internet to improve knowledge diffusion in medicine.
August 1, 1997... New network-based retrieval systems are helping to dispense vital information and knowledge of therapeutic advances to the medical community. Medical professionals are facing an information crisis. Medical knowledge is expanding and changing...

An international collaboratory based on virtual patient records.
August 1, 1997... Efforts to build a new information infrastructure will enhance and extend the quality of health care worldwide. Virtual patient records will impact health care internationally the way the Internet and the World-Wide Web transformed global...

Internet pricing vs. reality.
August 1, 1997... How should service on the Internet be priced? Should it be "free," as many computer enthusiasts seem to expect? Is it too cheap to meter? What should the Federal government's role be in promoting and supporting the Internet? I seek to answer...

Crypto key management.
August 1, 1997... A self-constituted group of cryptographers and computer scientists - Hal Abelson (MIT/Hewlett- Packard), Ross Anderson (Cambridge University), Steven M. Bellovin (AT&T Research), Josh Benaloh (Microsoft), Matt Blaze (AT&T Research), Whitfield...