Trees that tweet, Duran Duran go 3G at mobile mega-show

80s pop sensations Duran Duran aim to team up with telcos to push their music to a whole new generation of fans.

Fresh from performing with his Duran Duran band mates the night before at the Mobile World Congress awards dinner Nick Rhodes talked about how the band are using telecommunications technology to reach a broader audience with their upcoming album release.

"We look at it as a box of tools and with mobile there's a lot more you can do than you ever could before," Rhodes said.

"We're always looking for new ways to create something. When we go into the studio I might find a new gadget and use it with the music. When we've got content we're looking for new ways to distribute content, but also how to break the content up and whether there is any interactive elements."

The band, known for their extravagant videos in the 80s, have already played with letting their fans create video clips or remix songs.

Rhodes said the next step will be to team up with mobile telcos on specific projects to push the boundaries of what mobile technology is capable of.

"We're happy to provide content but we're also very interested in working with people to see what the future technologies are, what we could do, how we could use things in ways that other people have not used them yet," Rhodes said.

Outside of a flirtation with ringtones, music and video downloads, most artists haven't used mobile phones technology, he said.

"We haven't really got into the integrated 3G systems and using the technology to its best," said Rhodes. "I think you'll find what's starting to happen now is for the first time artists are actually saying 'wait a minute, the mobile audience is so much bigger than even the online audience'."

It's a brave new world out there where you try new things and see what works, said Rhodes.

"My view has always been, don't be afraid to try something new, don't be afraid to get out there and actually see what people think because they'll let you know soon enough,"

He said in the always on and connected world where it is possible to provide content frequently it was still important to retain the quality.

"What I like the idea of is everything is instant. We used to have to put a record out, stick posters up around the town and hope someone walked by at a certain time of the day," he said. "Now we know we press a button and there it is, all over mobile phone networks, all over the internet. People have it and they decide very, very quickly."

It's an aspect of technology that Rhodes likes and said works well for artists who are essentially communicators.

Markets such as India and China with mobile ownership in excess of PC or traditional phone ownership open up opportunities to get Duran Duran's music to an audience very quickly, said Rhodes.


Foliage 2.0

Even the shrubbery can tweet as demonstrated by a "connected tree" at the Ericsson pavilion.

The network technology company have placed a pad under an orange tree in a pot that creates an electromagnetic field around the plant.

The tree will tweet whenever a person walks into the electromagnetic field or touches it.

For example:

"Today has been a busy day. I've done lots of TV interviews. If you see any of them, please send me links."

or...

"I've been touched 161 times in the last hour."

Hold onto the tree and it sends a text to a gardener.

Unfortunately, like a lot of what appears on Twitter some of its tweets verge on the inane.

"Be happy. It's one way of being wise."


Audi's Wi-Fi hotspot

Audi and Qualcomm used the Mobile World Congress to announce selected Audi A8 models would have 3G network connectivity built in.

On top of the traditional turn-by-turn navigation capabilities, the car can receive real-time traffic updates.

A WiFi "hot spot" can be created in the car for passengers to connect to the internet.

There is potential to connect the car to emergency services who could be automatically notified when the car is involved in an accident.

The technology also allows for the car to communicate technical issues back to the manufacturer – something for Toyota to add to the "to do" list?

DoCoMo's eye controlled headphones

Japanese telco NTT Docomo threw open the doors of the R&D lab to show off a set of headphones controlled by eye movement.

Apparently the human eyeball is electrically charged – positively charged at the cornea and negatively charged at the retina.

Electrodes in the headphones pick up changes in the electric fields depending on the direction of the eyeball.

Look left and the electrode in the earpiece on the left picks up the positive charge and the electrode in the right earpiece registers the negative charge.

The technology, which may never end up in the hands of consumers, could be integrated into music players or phones to allow for hands free operation.

Look right then left and the MP3 player begins to play or pauses.

Two glances right and it skips to the next track.

Roll your eyes up and to the right to turn up the volume or roll your eyes down and to the left to bring down the volume.

One of the company's staff sole job for the show was to perform throughout the day – a glance here, an eye roll there – for the ogling crowds.


Helen Twose travelled to Barcelona as a guest of Qualcomm