
A New Age of Power - apsec112
http://ubeam.com/
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thewarrior
If this thing really works a lot of people on HN will be forced to eat crow.

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Animats
These are the same guys who, last year, had a little ultrasonic power
transmission link made from old camera ranging sensors.[1] They were very
vague about efficiency and range then, and they're very vague about efficiency
and range now.

The first picture shows the Earth from space. Ultrasonics don't work in
vacuum, guys.

Covered on YCombinator last year.[2]

[1] [http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/07/ubeam-wireless-charger-
ul...](http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/07/ubeam-wireless-charger-ultrasound/)
[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8542091](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8542091)

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Mithaldu
They link to this, and leave out the latter part:

A Study on the Effectiveness of Ultrasonic Sound Emitters [in Controlling Bat
Populations]

They're practically parodying themselves at this point.

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jacknews
I'm guessing ubeam is also the subject of this wsj article, though I can't get
past the loginwall: [http://www.wsj.com/articles/soon-power-will-be-delivered-
to-...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/soon-power-will-be-delivered-to-your-
device-by-air-1444017661)

I believe the CEO Meredith Perry was on TED or some such preaching about
ignoring scientists and techies when they say something is impossible, just
believe, keep pushing, and it'll all come good.

Maybe this is the next unicorn.

------
Someone
_" The most recent paper to investigate the safety of ultrasound was just
published [...] Of note is that this study used energy levels to tissue that
were orders of magnitude higher than levels that uBeam’s system uses."_

The abstract at
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0041624X15...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0041624X15001973):

 _" Demonstrated in vitro, 0.6 W of transcutaneous ultrasound power transfer
to an implant.[...] with an average RF input to electrical charging efficiency
of 20%"_

So, at best, 3W is _" orders of magnitude higher than levels that uBeam’s
system uses"_. That will charge your remote, but not your phone.

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jaydub
To distribute sound over long distances 'wirelessly' you need to make it loud.
That typically means cranking up the power. And ultrasound can be harmful at
high power [1].

[1]

"Occupational exposure to ultrasound in excess of 120 dB may lead to hearing
loss. Exposure in excess of 155 dB may produce heating effects that are
harmful to the human body..."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasound)

~~~
cryptoglyph
uBeam's name is a killing word.

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schnika
Human ears can't hear ultrasound. What about other animals[1] on this planet?
[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasound#Animals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasound#Animals)

~~~
zamalek
They noted dogs in the write-up so I assume they are using extremely high
frequencies far beyond what animals can hear.

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notacoward
Any time someone starts off with a review of when scientists were wrong, you
know snake oil will follow. In the section on bats they specifically mention
how quickly ultrasound power drops off, but never discuss how that same bit of
physics affects their main value proposition (hint: a lot). The irony of them
going on to say "it's terrible that companies sell these devices because
they're ripping people off" is pretty thick.

