5G Bartender

He prepares cocktails, speaks a dozen languages ​​and recognizes his most loyal customers by their faces: developed by the Spanish "Food Tech" group Macco Robotics, the Kime robot aims to be a "high added value" bartender.

Even Joan Laporta, the president of FC Barcelona, ​​visited the stand of the Spanish operator Telefonica to meet one of the stars of the show.

This humanoid robot operating with 5G can "work 24 hours a day", enthuses its manufacturer, who highlights other characteristics perceived as advantages: it avoids "unnecessary contacts" and reduces the risk of "contamination"...

Virtual disco

A long queue to go dancing, no security guards at the entrance, just a virtual reality headset to wear.

On the stand of the South Korean operator SK Telecom, visitors had a festive foretaste of the metaverse, the virtual universe announced as the next age of the Internet and which is attracting the interest of all the major players in the tech.

A virtual nightclub dancer in 360° hologram immersion at the Barcelona Mobile World Fair, MWC, on March 2, 2022 Josep LAGO AFP

Joysticks in hand, the clubber 3.0 is immersed inside a giant disco ball to wiggle his hips in the middle of other avatars in this virtual discotheque.

It's one of many apps in "Ifland," the operator's metaverse launched in 2021 and designed to "maximize user experience across various virtual spaces and avatars."

Remote car racing

Driving a car more than 1,000 km away thanks to 5G?

It is one of the latest generation mobile network applications offered by the French operator Orange.

Called "Vrombr", this mobile game produced by the young shoot Polyptik allows via a smartphone from Barcelona to drive real miniature cars... on a circuit in Châtillon in the Paris region.

A concrete appetizer of the network of the future, while Orange has announced that it will gradually shut down its 2G and 3G networks in all the countries in which it is present in the European Union (Spain, France, Poland, Romania, Belgium...) between 2025 and 2030.

Express charge and eco-friendly battery

In Barcelona, ​​several manufacturers unveiled express charging systems, presented as the "fastest in the world" - a crucial issue for the smartphone sector, which has been striving for several years to improve the autonomy of devices.

The Chinese Realme has thus developed a 150 watt charge for its future GT Neo 3, allowing it to recharge its battery to 50% in five minutes.

Its competitor Oppo has meanwhile promised a 100% recharge in nine minutes, thanks to its 240-watt "Supervooc" technology.

More ecological and claiming to be less dangerous: the Japanese start-up PJP Eye has unveiled a prototype "organic" battery incorporating carbon made from cotton instead of the metals usually used for this type of product (nickel, manganese and cobalt).

"This technology makes it possible to extend the life of the batteries" and therefore to reduce "their CO2 emissions", explains its director, Inketsu Okina, who highlights another advantage, with demonstration in support: these batteries do not not explode on impact.

Cyberdog

Low on legs, the body full of sensors and microphones, the cyber-dog of the manufacturer Xiaomi, exhibited for the first time outside China, can - at your choice - trot near its owner, bark, give the paw or even mount the keep.

A visitor in front of a poster of the MWC mobile world fair in Barcelona, ​​​​March 2, 2022 Josep LAGO AFP

This robot, whose brain was developed in "open source", and which is still in the experimental phase, is controlled via a mobile phone.

A thousand copies have been put on sale, at nearly 1,500 euros each, on the Chinese market.

© 2022 AFP