5 ms·

Wireless Charging, at a Distance, Moves Forward for uBeam

11 points by antoinec 12y ago

Nux 12y ago
Very interesting, might just work. They need to be careful with the frequencies though, not to screw around with the wildlife and pets around us.
- vonklaus 12y ago
  In the TED talk it is explained as safe. Just light electromagnetic waves. http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electricity http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electrici...
sssilver 12y ago
> "her career goal was to eventually find life on other planets. Instead, Ms. Perry accidentally stumbled upon something even more exciting: the ability to charge portable electronics, like cellphones and laptops, wirelessly using ultrasound" What's wrong with you people, how's charging portable electronics more exciting than finding life on another planet??
- omonra 12y ago
  With age people start to consider opportunities from the Expected Value perspective.
vonklaus 12y ago
This is going to be major. This space is progressing and is going to be similar to the television revolution our parents lived through. We are on early black and white right now, but this is going to be so ubiquitous for most things our kids will laugh at wires like we do at black and white.
trsohmers 12y ago
If people just understood the inverse square law and other related functions, stuff like this wouldn't be thought of as so revolutionary. While I do see some potential for this technology as a product for those that do not care about their home electricity bill, would you really want to have less than 1% efficiency? Think of it this way: You are using electricity to generate oscillating waves in the air, directing that to a receiver, which is then turning that back in to electricity. This has some promise for extremely low power devices (think milliwatts), would you want to have a 500W power supply to charge a 5W phone? References: https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/opticalandsemidev/Public/Publications/Ultrasonic%20vs.%20Inductive.pdf https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/opticalandsemidev/Public/Pu... (39% efficency at 1mm, 0.013% at 10cm) The best that I've seen (promising for IoT...) "The authors showed that with these transducers data communications can be achieved at wall-transducer standoff distances of up to 10 mm. Of the many tested configurations, the authors quote the performance of a 400 mW Tx system operating across a 25 mm steel wall. This system achieved a 10 mW power transmission (0.25% efficiency) and a 1 Mb/s data transmission rate. The authors expect that the power transmission efficiency can be increased to 1%." http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/305/1/012088/pdf/1742-6596_305_1_012088.pdf http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/305/1/012088/pdf/1742-65...
- mmastrac 12y ago
  Directional transmission isn't subject to the inverse-square law (well, sort of [1][2]), only omni-directional transmission. While I don't know much about uBeam, there are efforts to use beam-forming to make charging more efficient, ie: http://www.scribd.com/doc/70793467/Wireless-Charging http://www.scribd.com/doc/70793467/Wireless-Charging [1] http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=633345 http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=633345 [2] http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=177187 http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=177187

11 points by antoinec 12y ago

Nux 12y ago

Very interesting, might just work. They need to be careful with the frequencies though, not to screw around with the wildlife and pets around us.

vonklaus 12y ago
In the TED talk it is explained as safe. Just light electromagnetic waves. http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electricity http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electrici...

sssilver 12y ago

> "her career goal was to eventually find life on other planets. Instead, Ms. Perry accidentally stumbled upon something even more exciting: the ability to charge portable electronics, like cellphones and laptops, wirelessly using ultrasound" What's wrong with you people, how's charging portable electronics more exciting than finding life on another planet??

omonra 12y ago
With age people start to consider opportunities from the Expected Value perspective.

vonklaus 12y ago

This is going to be major. This space is progressing and is going to be similar to the television revolution our parents lived through. We are on early black and white right now, but this is going to be so ubiquitous for most things our kids will laugh at wires like we do at black and white.

trsohmers 12y ago

If people just understood the inverse square law and other related functions, stuff like this wouldn't be thought of as so revolutionary. While I do see some potential for this technology as a product for those that do not care about their home electricity bill, would you really want to have less than 1% efficiency? Think of it this way: You are using electricity to generate oscillating waves in the air, directing that to a receiver, which is then turning that back in to electricity. This has some promise for extremely low power devices (think milliwatts), would you want to have a 500W power supply to charge a 5W phone? References: https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/opticalandsemidev/Public/Publications/Ultrasonic%20vs.%20Inductive.pdf https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/opticalandsemidev/Public/Pu... (39% efficency at 1mm, 0.013% at 10cm) The best that I've seen (promising for IoT...) "The authors showed that with these transducers data communications can be achieved at wall-transducer standoff distances of up to 10 mm. Of the many tested configurations, the authors quote the performance of a 400 mW Tx system operating across a 25 mm steel wall. This system achieved a 10 mW power transmission (0.25% efficiency) and a 1 Mb/s data transmission rate. The authors expect that the power transmission efficiency can be increased to 1%." http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/305/1/012088/pdf/1742-6596_305_1_012088.pdf http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/305/1/012088/pdf/1742-65...

mmastrac 12y ago
Directional transmission isn't subject to the inverse-square law (well, sort of [1][2]), only omni-directional transmission. While I don't know much about uBeam, there are efforts to use beam-forming to make charging more efficient, ie: http://www.scribd.com/doc/70793467/Wireless-Charging http://www.scribd.com/doc/70793467/Wireless-Charging [1] http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=633345 http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=633345 [2] http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=177187 http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=177187