Judea Pearl, a longtime UCLA professor whose work on artificial intelligence laid the foundation for such inventions as the iPhone's Siri speech recognition technology and Google's driverless cars, has been named the 2011 ACM Turing Award winner.

Ever wish you had someone to accompany you on a long drive -- a companion that knows you well, can help you avoid traffic jams, maybe even help find the cheapest gas along the route home from work?

Part two of an in-depth interview where we ask futurist Ross Dawson to elaborate on his predictions for 2016, their implications for the corporation and the individual

Part one of an in-depth interview where we ask futurist Ross Dawson to elaborate on his predictions for 2016, their implications for the corporation and the individual.

Technology firms wowed us in 2011, delivering tablets, ultrathin laptops, innovative cloud services, and voice command digital assistants. Not so long ago, the technology underlying these products was nothing more than research and development projects. So, in an effort to peek into our not-so-distant tech future, here's a glimpse at ten promising projects percolating in tech research labs.

"Stair, please fetch the stapler from the lab," says the man seated at a conference room table. The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot, standing nearby, replies in a nasal monotone, "I will get the stapler for you."