- Joe Root: England's elegant Test record-breaker
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
- Jurgen Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Sinner to face Medvedev in Shanghai Masters quarter-finals
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Record-breaking Root guides England to 232-2 in reply to Pakistan's 556
- Japan PM dissolves parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- Goodbye Tito? Tomb at risk as Serbs argue over Yugoslav legacy
- Restoration experts piece together silent Sherlock Holmes mystery
- Sinner avoids Shanghai deja vu with assured Shelton win
- Pyongyang to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea
- Trumpet star Marsalis says jazz creates 'balance' in divided world
- No children left on Greece's famed but emptying island
- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
- Climate change made deadly Hurricane Helene more intense: study
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
- Sega ninja game 'Shinobi' gets movie treatment
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
- Pacific island nations swamped by global drug trade
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
Clones, noseprints, flying taxis: Sci-fi meets reality at expo
The Mobile World Congress (MWC) is primarily a pow-wow for the big-wigs of the telecom industry, but far from the main thoroughfares of the vast conference there are always hidden tech gems.
Here are some of the most offbeat products spotted by AFP.
- Eternal clone -
As advertising slogans go, "you can live forever" is up there with the best.
That is how Memori Yamato explains the "personalised AI clone" from her Japanese company Alt Inc.
"Your descendants can continue to speak and interact with you, even after your death," Yamato told AFP.
The idea is to upload as many videos, images and audio samples as you can while alive.
The system will use it to generate an AI mirror, cloning you forever in the digital world.
"It will look like you, it speaks in your voice, and it even thinks like you," she said.
The idea has been nine years in the making, she said, and feedback from early users suggests the technology has nailed appearances and voices.
- Noseprint ID -
A dog's nose carries similar identifying traits as a human fingerprint.
South Korean start-up Petnow took this info and ran with it -- like a dog after a stick -- to create a biometric database of pets based on noseprints rather than microchips.
"Since the 1940s, we've known that dogs' noses worked a little like fingerprints," the firm's Peter Jung told AFP.
He explained that around 100,000 animals are abandoned each year in South Korea, often because owners cannot afford vet bills.
"Less than 10 percent have chips because people don't like the process," he said.
Petnow just requires a photo and AI does the rest, ensuring the photos are good enough for identity purposes.
Jung says 50,000 pet owners have signed up since last year and he hopes the government will change the rules to allow his system to replace chips.
And cat lovers need not worry. Their noses may be too petite to be identifiable, but each feline face is unique and can be used in the system.
- Flying taxi -
A staple from the pages of science-fiction and the dream of the super-rich, flying taxis could be with us as soon as 2025, according to SK Telecom.
At the MWC, some attendees got an early taste, thanks to VR headsets and a real-life prototype complete with juddering seats.
Halfway between a helicopter and a drone, the craft has six electric motors that allow vertical take-offs and landings.
It can carry up to four passengers and move at speeds of up to 320 kilometres (198 miles) per hour.
South Korea's biggest telecoms provider developed it with Californian start-up Joby Aviation and hopes it will solve congestion in South Korea's cities without costing the earth.
"In Korea, in urban areas, we have severe traffic congestion, but constructing a mass transportation system like a highway or subway needs many social costs," said the firm's Ken Wohn.
"Using this UAM (Urban Air Mobility) service can shorten our customers' travel time without making so much infrastructure."
- Never alone -
In the future, we may live our later years in the company of "socially intelligent" robots capable of "building an emotional relationship" with us.
That is the vision of Spanish technology outfit Eurecat, which has developed a robot called NHOA -- or "never home alone".
It is designed to reduce the loneliness of older people living at home.
The orange and white robot stands 160 cm tall and can be controlled with a touchscreen and by voice.
Eurecat's David Mari said the aim was not to replace human relationships but to "humanise" the applications and connected objects used by older people.
S.Gregor--AMWN