ScienceDaily: Software News
Software Development -- Software Engineering. From embedded software to smart machines, read about advanced logic systems and more.

• Cooking Up New Mems: A Taste Of Microscopic Machines To Come
  Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are tiny components etched from silicon. Production is extremely complex, sometimes with hundreds of steps, each with dozens of parameters. One European project has developed software that can test, simulate, track and share new manufacturing processes. It could slash development times and pave the way for innovative MEMS designs. If you could shrink yourself smaller than a dust mite and explore the innards of a modern car you would discover some amazing microscopic machines. Carefully etched out of silicon wafers are microscale accelerometers to trigger airbags, gyroscopes to detect and correct dangerous yaw and pressure sensors to monitor tyre inflation.
• Software Wrapper For Smarter, Networked Homes
  Homes today are filled with increasing numbers of high-tech gadgets, from smart phones and PCs to state-of-the-art TV and audio systems, many of them with built-in networking capabilities. Combined, these devices could form the building blocks of the smart homes of the future, but only if they can be made to work together intelligently. Although the idea of creating intelligent networked home environments as a way to make life easier, safer and more enjoyable has been around for some time, the technology has yet to catch up with the vision. Home automation systems have become more commonplace and consumer electronics have more networking capability, but no one has, so far, gotten all the high-tech and not so high-tech gadgetry cluttering modern homes to work together in an intelligent way. It is not yet common for fridges to talk to your TV to warn that the door has been left open or for heating systems to turn on when you return home, for example.
• Smaller, Faster Integrated Circuits Created By Using Computer-aided Design Software
  Integrated circuits are the "brain" in computers, cell phones, and many other electronic devices. Scientists have demonstrated substantial improvements in integrated circuits, also known as silicon chips, achieved not by costly improvements in manufacturing, but by improved computer-aided design software based on better mathematical algorithms.
• Software Help Mars Rovers Find Winter Havens
  New software is helping NASA find safe places for the Spirit rover to ride out future Martian winters -- and also plan where Spirit and its companion rover, Opportunity, will explore in the future. The steep Martian mesa dubbed "Von Braun" would be a safe haven, the software and data analysis determined -- but the path that Spirit would have to follow to get there is a little too risky to travel with winter on the way.
• 'Combinatorial' Approach Squashes Software Bugs Faster, Cheaper
  Software researchers are developing an open-source tool that uses an emerging approach called 'combinatorial testing' to catch programming errors. The tool could save software developers significant time and money when it is released next year.
• New Software To Aid Early Detection Of Infectious Disease Outbreaks
  A newly released software program will let health authorities at the site of an infectious disease outbreak quickly analyze data, speeding the detection of new cases and the implementation of effective interventions.
• Free Software Brings Affordability, Transparency To Mathematics
  Mathematicians are on a mission to replace the costly software used in education and research with a free, open-source version. More than 100 mathematicians around the world are helping to develop the tool.
• Planning Made Easier: Engineers Develop Software Solution For Complex Space Missions
  Sending an unmanned spacecraft to the outer fringes of the solar system requires extensive planning.Engineers have now developed an efficient and highly sophisticated mathematical algorithm (implemented as software) that determines the most efficient path for a spacecraft's journey from point A to point B -- no matter how many worlds or years away.
• Intelligent Software Helps Build Perfect Robotic Hand
  Scientists are working on intelligent software that will take them a step closer to building the perfect robotic hand. Using artificial intelligence, they are creating software which will learn and copy human hand movements. They hope to replicate this in a robotic device which will be able to perform the dexterous actions only capable today by the human hand.
• New Scoring System Protects Credit Card Transactions
  As this year's holiday season approaches, your credit card transactions may be a little more secure thanks to the Common Vulnerability Scoring System. When you make an electronic transaction -- either swiping a card at a checkout counter or through a commercial website -- you enter personal payment information into a computer.
• New Computer Architecture Aids Emergency Response
  Researchers have invented a computer architecture that enables the secure transmission of crucial rescue information to first responders during events such as natural disasters, fires or terrorist attacks. Electrical engineering professor Ruby Lee said the new architecture allows for what she describes as "transient trust."
• Improving Password Protection With Easy To Remember Drawings
  An inventive way of improving password security for handheld devices such as iPhones, Blackberry and Smartphone has now been developed. The software, which uses pictures instead of letters and numbers, has been initially designed for handheld devices, but could soon be expanded to other areas. Those who took part in testing this system created passwords that were a thousand times more secure than ordinary textual passwords. Most testers also found them easy to remember.
• Free Shopping In A Virtual Bazaar Of Gene Regulation Data
  An international team has opened a virtual bazaar, called PAZAR, which allows biologists to share information about gene regulation through individually managed 'boutiques' (data collections). According to research published in the online open access journal, Genome Biology, customers can access data without any charge from any boutique or extract information from the 'superstores' that aggregate data of similar types.
• Adaptive Technology Developed For Visually Impaired Engineers
  By adding features to commonly used chemical-engineering software packages, researchers have developed adaptive technology that allows blind or visually impaired students and working professionals to perform the essential functions of chemical-engineering process design.
• Software Allows Scientists Better Access To Expensive Microscopes And Telescopes Over Internet
  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 possible before. The need for such remote operation is growing, and it's driven by the costs of doing research.
• Computing Change: Researcher Traces History Of The Personal Computer
  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 didn't exist. One constant the researcher has found in the "froth of change" in technology is that businesses and employees are constantly trying to figure out how to make the new gadgets and processes work for them.
• Improved Security For Smart Tags And Other Electronic Payments
  Scientists have devised an inexpensive and efficient way to improve security for radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, the wireless devices that allow consumers to pay for their gas or access buildings without pulling out their wallets. The breakthrough, which uses variations in the tags' existing memory cells, will make their stored information more secure while retaining their small, convenient size.