Interactive news, Google tricks at mobile show

After a week in one of the world's most beautiful cities, Telecom's head of mobile Paul Hamburger is yet to see anything but the inside of windowless meeting rooms.

In Barcelona for the annual Mobile World Congress, his day stretches from 6am until 2am of back-to-back meetings.

He attends the annual trade show with several objectives in mind – to check out the technology that is a couple of years down the track, the products at the show that are just around the corner and the here and now, including new network technologies and the device vendors.

"It's fairly relentless...selecting products or working with content providers or working with new application platforms. What the customer hopefully sees is something that is very sexy and they get very excited and use it."

Hamburger talked to the Herald about what had taken his eye.

Mirasol screen

Developed by Qualcomm, the Mirasol screen uses technology inspired by the shimmer on the wings of a butterfly.

The display mimics butterfly wings, which are made up of tiny scales with pockets of air between that only reflect certain colours, using microscopic mirrors under a layer of air trapped beneath a glass cover.

Mirasol is not backlight like an LCD screen so doesn't use a lot of power, can be read easily in both low and bright light conditions and is capable of handling video images.

Hamburger said the screen had huge potential for interactive newspapers on an e-reader.

"The Herald will be on that display and you will be able to click on the picture and see the video relating to the article," he said. "I'll get my three or four favourite papers, access 200 magazines if I want them."

Rather than a single print edition delivered to a household, three or four people in the family could be reading the paper at the same time, Hamburger said.

"What I liked about the Mirasol display is that it is just so readable."

Google

"Outstanding" was how Hamburger described the keynote address by Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.

During the session the company demonstrated three products associated with speech and character recognition.

Hamburger said the technology meant someone could speak into a device, for example, asking for an Italian restaurant near the Langham Hotel in Auckland and suggestions will pop up on a map.

Also demonstrated was a menu in German scanned in to a mobile device and translated to English using Google's translation application.

Google Goggles took a photograph of a cathedral in Barcelona and within seconds the optical recognition recognised the cathedral and brought up all the associated information, said Hamburger.

"When you saw it, it's just incredibly powerful as a tool and it's so easy," he said.

The capability would be available on devices using the Google-developed Android operating system.

Devices

Hamburger didn't talk about specific phones and mobile devices but said what was on the various phone manufacturer trade show stands was only half the picture.

"What they show us in these meeting rooms is what's coming next. And then when certain people leave the room they then show you what's really next."

What Hamburger describes is like something out of a spy thriller, where the door is locked and the manufacturers reveal a device that they haven't shown anyone else before.

He has not only seen this year's line-up but what is coming in 2011, none of which are out on display in the trade halls.

Machine to machine

A big trend at the show was machine-to-machine communication.

A lot of the development in machine-to-machine technology is focussed on the health sector where it could dramatically cut costs by remotely monitoring people.

Hamburger said someone with diabetes who may be constantly checking their blood and going for regular check-ups can send information directly to their doctor over the mobile network through a SIM in a blood reader.

"Unless there is a physical need for a check-up, it can all be done remotely," he said.

The technology has potential in everything from transportation, security through to outdoor advertising.

Helen Twose travelled to Barcelona as a guest of Qualcomm.