

UBeam’s ultrasound wireless charging is real and about to be funded - ohaikbai
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/26/kill-the-cord/

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jdjdps
Im slightly concerned about having ~5w of beam formed ultrasound tracking my
mobile phone as I clamp it against my ear to make a phone call. I will need
convincing!

~~~
Sir_Substance
The really dangerous part is you can't tell until it starts damaging your
hearing, and sometimes not even then, depending on decibels.

You won't hear the sound, so you're depending on it meeting your pain
threshold to be warned that something is happening. If it's "merely" 100db or
so (a loud drill), you won't feel a thing, and could be exposed for hours
without noticing.

These are the lasers of hearing. Without _really_ good studies to back up the
safety of this amount of energy, I might just end up avoiding all starbucks.

~~~
raverbashing
Depends on the frequency, if it's something like 30kHz I would worry, but for
MHz range I think it's pretty harmless (in the "loud sound" item, which
doesn't mean these are all the issues that might arise)

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xg15
" _uBeam’s ultrasound wireless charging has several advantages. First and
foremost, it’s safe. These are similar ultrasonic waves used for ultrasound
scans of babies in the womb._ "

"How can it be dangerous? Look at the babies!"

I would be less worried about the whole thing if they released a single
statement about the safety of their system that doesn't insult the reader's
intelligence.

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minimaxir
Relevant HN thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8542091](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8542091)

~~~
BinaryIdiot
Pretty interesting how that article talked about how it was impossible and now
they supposedly have working prototypes, about to close several huge deals and
a series B of about $50 million less than a year later. I wonder how well it
works.

~~~
rasz_pl
Practical applications are impossible. Prototypes are easier, because they
dont have to live in real world.

simple examples - can charge phone in my pocket while im moving around? that
will require at least 2(3 to be viable) charging stations in the room. What if
there are two people in that room? What if I have a cat and would like to keep
him sane? what if my phone is in a lower pocked below the desk level? I have
to take it out and put on the desk in unobscured spot? why not put it on $10
Qi pad? Charging multiple phones in a starbucks? haha give me a break.

and all the iot talk thrown in? Its typical 'this will change the world, we
can do everything' BS startups do when their core technology doesnt work at
all. They have a prototype!, just no real world numbers :))

~~~
BinaryIdiot
I'm not saying you're wrong (I really don't understand the science behind the
thing; at least not enough to form an opinion worth any consideration) but I'm
curious how they would get $60M in total funding without this being a product
that can be sold and used in the home.

I'm very curious what happens when or if they launch.

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Animats
How much transducer area do you need at the mobile device end? If you could
put a flat speaker across a whole face of the device, you might have enough
area. It has to be pointed more or less at the emitter, of course. I don't see
this as being widely useful at longer ranges. You have to have both line of
sight and alignment.

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cnvogel
I like that the early prototype consists of a Car-HiFi-Amplifier and something
made of Perfboard...

[but of course, makes sense, in the end the HiFi Amp is just a pair of
H-Bridges anyway, probably quite useful to pump rather low-frequency energy
out]

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raverbashing
I'm still slightly skeptical.

Let's see how it actually performs in a real situation. Of course there might
be something (the public) we still don't know about it, that makes it more
efficient.

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karmakaze
For a split-sec I thought this might set the record for time from first
experimental result to consumer product. _Acoustic_ transducers. Old dog, new
trick.

