Mobile World Congress is in full effect. The show is an exhausting trip through both Barcelona and the year ahead in mobile technology. But sometimes the future is not what you expect, and that’s the case for a lot of things that are on display.
We’ve come across devices that scan your scalp for signs of baldness, a phone for your pet to ring you up on, and even a robot arm to…keep you company during your workday? These are just some of the strange things that have popped up in our travels. Read on for what has caught our attention, for better or worse.
AI Workmate
So many of us work from home now and, aside from Slack, we might not get to “talk” to anyone for about eight hours a day. Lenovo wants you to put aside your loneliness with a new companion, the AI Workmate. It’s like if Luxo Jr. got a job. An appendage looking for a body, the AI Workmate beams its empathy-inducing eyes at you to turn your notes into presentations, summarizes the communications you receive, and is available to just chat with you if you need.
Pova Neon from Tecno
Tecno’s Pova Neon is for those who blast Imagine Dragons’ “Thunder” on their phones and want to see it accompanied by lightning. The back has a clear panel filled with ionized inert gas that throws off neon sparks when you touch it. The phone is just a concept so MWC might be its only chance to light up a room.
PetPhone
PetPhone bills itself as the “first smartphone available for pet,” which brings up more questions than its maker GlocalMe is likely able to answer. While the device that attaches to a pet’s collar does many of the things you can expect from devices that look similar—GPS tracking, activity alerts, health monitoring—it also lets your pets call you. If your pet jumps in the air three times within 6 seconds, a call will be initiated. But don’t worry, if they don’t call you, you can call them and communicate via a speaker.
Honor Robot
Yes, Honor has a Robot Phone, but it also has a robot robot. A humanoid that was about two-thirds the size of its dance team performed a routine where it moonwalked and did a backflip. While it’s just a concept for now, Honor hopes to have it serving as a helper bot to humans.
HeyCheckScalp
If you don’t want to rely on your own eyes to tell you whether your hairline has changed, HeyCheckScalp is happy to do the job. Use the app to take some photos of your head and an AI analyzer gets brutally truthful about temple recession, crown thinning, part widening, overall thinning, and hairline receding. You can then enter info to assess what’s adding to your hair health woes and get product recommendations. The app is currently in beta.
