Author Topic: The uBeam FAQ  (Read 641716 times)

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Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #100 on: December 04, 2015, 03:17:32 am »
Their website now suggests charging on planes.
Yeah, that's going to work a treat...  :palm:



 

Offline coppice

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #101 on: December 04, 2015, 03:22:44 am »
Their website now suggests charging on planes.
Yeah, that's going to work a treat...  :palm:


There's a lot of vibrational energy on a plane, you know. Its amazing how they can shake electronics to pieces given a few years.  :)
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #102 on: December 04, 2015, 03:24:22 am »
And this guy is the VP of engineering:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/seantaffler

Will be interesting to see if he's still there when the ship sinks.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #103 on: December 04, 2015, 03:46:04 am »
More Jobs:
http://ubeam.com/career/

Quote
Vice President, Electrical Engineering
SANTA MONICA, CA AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA

uBeam is seeking a VP of Electrical Engineering to oversee and manage the design and build of uBeam transmitter and receiver electronics from prototype to production. The VP of EE will have experience in driving at least one consumer electronic device from concept to production. The candidate will understand the requirements for volume production and the tradeoffs that make fast prototypes possible. The candidate will be responsible for overseeing the design, integration, and qualification of the electronics systems. The ideal candidate has designed high volume, high power, high-quality consumer electronics products with a consistent focus on product design as well as attention to detail. The candidate will work closely with in-house and contract engineering teams (EE, Acoustic) to develop complete solutions.

They will work with the rest of the team to design, develop, and bring the products from concept to production. The candidate will also be responsible for building out the team to fit its needs as the company grows.

Desired Skills and Experience

Electrical engineering design/engineering/build/test
Acoustic transducer driver (or low frequency power amplifier) & interface electronics
Electronics simulation (eg SPICE), design optimization, and model iteration using experimental data
Mixed signal (analog & digital) ASIC design
Battery charging and power management electronics
Microcontroller programming and architecture
PCB design, engineering, build, and test experience
Key differentiator is specific experience in all common methods of PCB fabrication and assembly (etch/mill/stencil/pick-place/etc)
Design AND build experience with high density PCBs
Chip-on-board & flex circuit design experience
Consumer electronics design experience
ASIC Design & ASIC House Selection
Electronics production and manufacturing experience
 Experience in selecting EE components, writing detailed electrical specification of the system interface, and test plan documents
Communication of design requirements to fabrication houses
Define Design for Manufacturing (DFM) guidelines
Prototype build, test, and debugging
Working with vendors/suppliers/manufacturing partners
Experience in analyzing trade-offs between performance, manufacturability and cost
Clearly articulate, track, and drive project objectives in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
Accurately summarize and communicate project status, risks, and mitigation plans to other departments and to executive management
Identify and resolve project dependencies and issues quickly and efficiently
Own all scheduling and logistics for a project
Develop and maintain strong working relationships with internal and external resources
Guide the team in accomplishing the roadmap, from both a product and a technical perspective
Ensure that timelines are met
Ensure that each phase of product development process is carefully managed and adhered to
Leadership Experience

Performance, scalability, reliability and capacity planning
Hardware and Software Interoperability
Ability to effectively work and collaborate across groups boundaries
An influential leader who get things done
Experience in hiring, mentoring and building a team from the start
Excellent communication skills
Education/Experience

BS EE/CE degree required, MS/PhD desired
15+ years industry experience
ABOUT YOU

Given the future growth trajectory, uBeam is building the necessary bench strength to propel the company into the future. As much as technical qualifications, and leadership excellence are key to your success, you manifest the fundamental values of our company culture that are critical to our ability to eventually power the world seamlessly:

If it doesn’t break the laws of physics, it can be done
Take “charge” of your destiny. Think around corners. Always have 3 backup plans.
Make and beat commitments

Quote
Senior Vision Scientist
SANTA MONICA, CA AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA

The senior vision scientist will be responsible for the object detection and tracking component of the uBeam power delivery system. They will use their knowledge in the field of object detection to identify and catalog mobile devices within the uBeam environment. They will also develop practical models to enable tracking (and predictive tracking ) of those devices. They will also develop methods to estimate the pose of the device.

Responsibilities

Prototype hardware and software solutions for tracking, detection and modeling
Develop creative computer vision and tracking software
Build novel real-time 3D object detection techniques and systems
Research and prototype techniques and algorithms for object detection and recognition
Contribute research that can be applied to uBeam product development
Devise data-driven models of human movement and behavior within the uBeam environment
Develop robust software to integrating multiple sensors and tracking systems
Research and prototype techniques and algorithms for moving object detection, segmentation, or and recognition
Assist with the translation of these algorithms and techniques to an embedded system and understand the tradeoffs required.
Requirements

PhD in Computer Science / Engineering or Electrical Engineering with a focus on Computer Vision and/or Machine Learning
3+ years experience in computer vision and machine learning
Competence with computer vision/machine learning libraries such as OpenCV, Matlab, or Torch
Hands-on experience with object detection and tracking, and optical flow
Fast prototyping skills, including comprehensive feature integration during all cycles of development
Practical knowledge of machine learning, Bayesian filtering, information theory, and 3D geometry
Demonstrated experience in a high level language (C++ /C# / Python etc)
Collaborative, positive, team-oriented mindset
Excellent technical writing and problem solving skills.

Quote
Engineering Projet Manager
SANTA MONICA, CA AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA

The Engineering Project Manager will manage and lead a cross functional team of skilled EE, Acoustic, SW and ME engineers. This role manages and tracks schedules and communicates risks and priorities. The successful candidate will be following up on day to day activities with the engineering team having the top level project goals in sight at all times.

The uBeam EPM role is highly technical. The uBeam EPM will utilize a solid EE/CE background to understand technical details of cross-functional issues and risks. This will enable you to set the proper priorities and put risk mitigation plans in place.

Key Qualifications

BS EE/CE degree required, MS/PhD desired
5+ years of industry experience
5+ years of project management experience
Excellent communication skills verbally and written
Experience with portable consumer electronics devices
Strong technical background
Experienced in setting up project schedules and work breakdown structures
Description

Lead cross-functional development teams
Management and tracking of development schedules
Identify and prioritize project tasks and risks
Drive engineering teams, managers, and suppliers, to integrate their deliverables and schedules into the project
Collaborate with contract manufacturers
Interaction with cross-functional team including Electrical Engineering, Firmware, Acoustics, and Mechanical Engineering
Communicating status and the big picture to the project team and management
Project risk assessment
Clearly articulate, track, and drive project objectives in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
Accurately summarize and communicate project status, risks, and mitigation plans to other departments and to executive management
Identify and resolve project dependencies and issues quickly and efficiently
Own all scheduling and logistics for a project
Develop and maintain strong working relationships with internal and external resources
Guide the team in accomplishing the roadmap, from both a product and a technical perspective
Ensure that timelines are met
Ensure that each phase of product development process is carefully managed and adhered to
Education

BS EE/CE degree required, MS/PhD desired

ABOUT YOU

Given the future growth trajectory, uBeam is building the necessary bench strength to propel the company into the future. As much as technical qualifications, and leadership excellence are key to your success, you manifest the fundamental values of our company culture that are critical to our ability to eventually power the world seamlessly:

If it doesn’t break the laws of physics, it can be done
Take “charge” of your destiny. Think around corners. Always have 3 backup plans.
Make and meet commitments
Break Boundaries
You are a renegade of technology. You look at complex engineering projects with grit and an obsessive desire to execute. You plan for success and you plan for failures.   Attention to detail is critical, and managing and mitigating risk are core to your DNA. You have a unique ability to manage and motivate very smart leading edge thinkers – to inspire excellence, quality and creativity.

You have been there, done that, and love to coach, teach and train, but with a sense of urgency in driving to milestones. Having led many a team from concept to mass production, the obstacles ahead still excite you as you apply those learnings to a new technology.

The uBeam mission:

uBeam is a disruptive wireless power company whose products beam electricity through the air to wirelessly charge electronic devices via bleeding edge and novel ultrasonic energy transmission and harvesting technology.  It is the wireless charging analog to WiFi.

uBeam is the world’s first & only commercially viable true wireless power technology that can charge consumer electronics over the air safely, without interfering with communication systems, and without enormous transmitters/receivers.   uBeam will charge the gamut of electronic devices – everything from hearing aid batteries, to smartphones, to flat screen TVs.

Our engineering team is comprised of world-class multidisciplinary inventors, where the word “impossible” is not part of our lexicon.  We take pride in solving the most difficult and complex technological problems quickly, across many fields.  At uBeam, we go from PowerPoint to prototype in a month or less.  We’re on a mission to untether the world, and we’re in search of a hands-on, seasoned, dedicated engineering leader who is driven to push the boundaries of technology.  We’re looking for someone who wants to leave their boring 9-to-5 desk job and come join uBeam to make tectonic shifts in the world of electricity.

We’re extremely well capitalized with backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel, Upfront Ventures, Marissa Mayer, Mark Cuban and others.

Quote
Transducer Acoustics Engineer
SANTA MONICA, CA AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA

uBeam is seeking candidates with physics/EE background focused on electromechanical transduction devices, specifically, design, test, simulation and construction of piezoelectric transducer systems to work on high power airborne ultrasonic phased array transmission systems. Candidate will work with EEs and Acoustic Transducer engineers to design, model, and test optimal systems.

Desired Skills and Experience:

Applicant must have demonstrated experience in the following core responsibilities:

Electromechanical Transducer Design:

Fundamentals of electromechanical device design, sensors and/or actuators. Piezoelectric devices a plus
Phased arrays, 2D phased array experience a plus
Beamforming methods, implementation and optimization
Experience of integration of design into mass produced product
Multi-industry experience desirable
Acoustics or energy harvesting knowledge desirable
Transducer/Acoustic Numerical Simulation

Fundamentals of calculations for standard device metrics and beam calculation
Experience in FE codes

ANSYS, Simulia, COMSOL, PZFlex and other specialist codes such as Field II and general codes such as MATLAB and Octave, CAD such as SolidWorks or Pro-E.
Small Scale or MEMS Device Manufacture

Hands on experience in construction of transduction devices, millimeter or smaller scale
Bonding, alignment, wiring
Familiar with basic clean rooms, cleaners, ovens, wire/blade saws
Test Experience

Experience in standard ultrasound testing equipment:
Impedance analyzers, vibrometers, hydrophones etc.
Analysis and presentation of large quantities of test data, and validation of simulation results.
Materials knowledge of fundamentals of constituent components

Piezoelectric knowledge a plus
Programming

Knowledge of basic scripting languages such as Python, LabView
Experience in numerical coding of physical phenomena a plus
Educational Background

7-10+ years experience or equivalent
Engineering or Physics degree required
ABOUT YOU

Self-starter, ability to work in a cross disciplinary team in a rapidly growing company.
This is an ideal position for an experienced and talented engineer looking for the opportunity to make a major contribution to a ground-breaking technology product.  May be individual contributor growing to manager role or above
Candidate must be able to work in the U.S.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #104 on: December 04, 2015, 03:48:57 am »
and more jobs:
Quote
Digital Hardware Engineer
SANTA MONICA, CA AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA

The Hardware Digital Design engineer will design, implement and bring-up high-speed digital boards. They will use their experience in microprocessor and FPGA based systems to realize a commercially viable product. Leveraging their experience to achieve a cost competitive layout. They should be familiar with the typical control and signaling protocols of high speed microprocessors and systems.

Responsibilities:

They will own the Transmitter Controller Board from design through EVT, DVT and to production. Including regulatory testing and approvals.

Requirements:

10+ years of experience in hardware digital design engineering.
Proven experience with board level design and FPGA
Proven success in building high speed digital boards with Application Processor, DDR3, Flash memory, Ethernet, WiFi and Bluetooth
Experience in designing with standard interfaces such as PCIe, I2C, SPI, MMC and JTAG.
Experience in designing with DC/DC buck/boost converter, LDO and other power regulators used on PCB.
Experience working with a team on PCB layout.
Experience working with the software team on debugging and problem resolution.
Involvement with regulatory testing activities.

Quote
Electrical/Mechanical Super-Technician
SANTA MONICA, CA AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA

uBeam is seeking an experienced technician to assist engineering staff in the development of a consumer electromechanical product, with responsibility for developing and testing solutions to solve technical problems in research and development, and manufacturing.

The technician will be responsible for conducting procedures and tests, maintains and repairs electrical/electronic, mechanical, hydraulic, and pneumatic systems and components. The position applies knowledge of electrical/electronics and mechanical principles in diagnosing equipment malfunctions and applies skills in restoring equipment to operation, and provides skilled mechanical and electrical/electronic support to all areas of manufacturing.

Our major requirement: Resourceful and creative solutions to complex technical problems in electrical and mechanical areas.

Can read schematics for both electronic and mechanical drawings.
Ability to debug both electronic systems and mechanical systems.
Assist engineers and scientists as they create, modify, and test products and processes.
Perform extensive research and development during creation phase of product.
Inspect products and processes for flaws and identify areas of improvement.
Conduct tests and collect data.
Assist in product design, development, and production.
Build and set up equipment.
Prepare and conduct experiments.
Calculate or record results during experiments.
Create prototypes of equipment.
Utilize computer-aided design and drafting equipment during design phase.
Calibrate test equipment.
Familiar with basic prototyping and machining equipment such as lathes, mills, 3D printers, laser micromachining etc
Experience with standard software packages for mCAD and eCAD
Experience transferring designs to manufacture
5+ years relevant experience
This is an ideal position for an experienced and talented engineer looking for the opportunity to make a major contribution to a ground-breaking technology product.

Candidate must be able to work in the U.S.

Quote
Electrical Engineer- Digital Engineer
SANTA MONICA, CA AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA

uBeam is seeking Digital Signal Engineers to work on uBeam transmitter and receiver systems.  Senior level candidates should have experience / qualifications matching the majority of requirements

EE candidates will be responsible for the design, integration, and qualification of the electronics systems.  The ideal candidate has designed and brought up digital high speed boards and high volume, high power, high-quality consumer electronics products with a consistent focus on product design as well as attention to detail.  The candidate will work closely with in-house and contract engineering teams (EE, Acoustic) to develop complete solutions.  They will work with the rest of the team to design, develop, and bring the products from concept to production.

Applicant are desired with experience in the following areas:

5+ years experience in design and bring up of digital high speed boards.
Design experience of standard interfaces such as USB, SPI, I2C etc.
Experience in uProcessor layout and routing,
FPGA break out and routing
Power supplies and power supply sequencing for the above
Memory modules, and high speed interfaces between both FPGA, uP and memory
Familiarity with integration of bluetooth/ wifi modules and ethernet PHY
Additionally, candidates should have demonstrated success with uP layouts and fabrication (requirement). Understanding of the requirements and constraints of high speed memory and bus layout and routing critical.
Some understanding of firmware a plus (Linux, FreeRTOS, etc)
BS EE/CE degree required, MS/PhD desired
7+ years industry experience
You manifest the fundamental values of our company culture that are critical to our ability to eventually power the world seamlessly:
If it doesn’t break the laws of physics, it can be done
Take “charge” of your destiny. Think around corners. Always have 3 backup plans.
Make and meet commitments
Break Boundaries

Quote
Electrical Engineer- Mixed Signal
SANTA MONICA, CA AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA

uBeam is seeking Electrical Engineers to work on uBeam transmitter and receiver systems.  Senior level candidates should have experience / qualifications matching the majority of requirements

EE candidates will be responsible for the design, integration, and qualification of the electronics systems.  The ideal candidate has designed high volume, high power, high-quality consumer electronics products with a consistent focus on product design as well as attention to detail.  The candidate will work closely with in-house and contract engineering teams (EE, Acoustic) to develop complete solutions.  They will work with the rest of the team to design, develop, and bring the products from concept to production.

Applicant are desired with experience in the following areas:

Electrical engineering design/engineering/build/test
Acoustic transducer driver (or low frequency power amplifier) & interface electronics
Electronics simulation (eg SPICE), design optimization, and model iteration using experimental data
Mixed signal (analog & digital) ASIC design
Battery charging and power management electronics
Microcontroller programming and architecture
PCB design, engineering, build, and test experience
Key differentiator is specific experience in all common methods of PCB fabrication and assembly (etch/mill/stencil/pick-place/etc)
Design AND build experience with high density PCBs
Chip-on-board & flex circuit design experience
Consumer electronics design experience
Electronics production and manufacturing experience
Experience in selecting EE components, writing detailed electrical specification of the system interface, and test plan documents
Communication of design requirements to fabrication houses
Define Design for Manufacturing (DFM) guidelines
Prototype build, test, and debugging
Working with vendors/suppliers/manufacturing partners
Experience in analyzing trade-offs between performance, manufacturability and cost
BS EE/CE degree required, MS/PhD desired7+ years industry experience
You manifest the fundamental values of our company culture that are critical to our ability to eventually power the world seamlessly:
If it doesn’t break the laws of physics, it can be done
Take “charge” of your destiny. Think around corners. Always have 3 backup plans.
Make and meet commitments
Break Boundaries
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #105 on: December 04, 2015, 03:50:00 am »
and even more jobs!

Quote
High Speed Digital Engineer
SANTA MONICA, CA AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA

uBeam is seeking High Speed Digital Signal Engineers to work on uBeam transmitter and receiver systems. Senior level candidates should have experience /qualifications matching the majority of requirements. EE candidates will be responsible for the design, integration, and qualification of theelectronics systems. The ideal candidate has designed and brought up digital highspeed boards and high volume, high power, high-quality consumer electronics products with a consistent focus on product design as well as attention to detail. The candidate will work closely with in-house and contract engineering teams (EE, Acoustic) to develop complete solutions. They will work with the rest of the team to design, develop, and bring the products from concept to production.

Desired Skills and Experience

10+ years experience in design and bring up of digital high speed boards.
Design experience of standard interfaces such as USB, SPI, I2C etc.
Experience in uProcessor layout and routing,
FPGA break out and routing
Power supplies and power supply sequencing for the above
Memory modules, and high speed interfaces between both FPGA, uP andmemory
Familiarity with integration of bluetooth/ wifi modules and ethernet PHY
Candidates should have demonstrated success with uP layouts and fabrication (requirement)
Understanding of the requirements and constraints of high speed memory and bus layout and routing critical.
Some understanding of firmware a plus (Linux, FreeRTOS, etc)
Education

BS EE/CE degree required, MS/PhD desired
5+ years industry experience
About You

You manifest the fundamental values of our company culture that are critical to our ability to eventually power the world seamlessly:

If it doesn’t break the laws of physics, it can be done
Take “charge” of your destiny. Think around corners. Always have 3 backup plans.
Make and meet commitments
Break Boundaries
Characteristics Sought:

Self starter
Looking for opportunity for growth
Able to work in fast-paced, deadline driven environment Team environment
Ability to work immediately within US

Quote
Mathematical Physicist
SANTA MONICA, CA AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA

uBeam is seeking a mathematician, physicist, or engineer comfortable with the fundamental analysis of physical systems. Requires the ability to quickly learn the basic phenomena of a physical system (e.g. electrical, mechanical, acoustic etc) and reduce the system effectively to a mathematical/analytical representation that allows for detailed understanding. This can either be from first principles, or via adaptation of existing work to the specifics of uBeam. Further, the candidate will be able to use this representation to quickly demonstrate key behavioral characteristics of the system, and make statements as to the general effect of changes and assist in the optimization of the system for device needs. Candidate must be competent in programming the developed analytical representation into an efficient software format and presenting results.

Skills

Analytic model development
Control theory optimization
Finite Element and/or numerical simulation experience
Mechanical / Electro-mechanical analysis
Ideal Experience

Beamforming (radar/cell phone/acoustics/WiFi/SONAR)
Numeric algorithm optimization
Low-level programming experience (C/Asm)
Parallelization experience
Mathematical modeling from first principles
MEMS/sensor/actuator experience Education/Experience
Minimum Bachelors in a hard science, engineering, mathematics. MS/PhD desired
Computer Science, 5-7+ years or equivalent experience. Specific Tool Knowledge
Desirable Python/NumPY
C/Asm
MATLAB Extra
LabVIEW Any major FE package VHDL/Verilog
Characteristics Sought

Self starter
Looking for opportunity for growth
Able to work in fast-paced, deadline driven environment Team environment
Ability to work immediately within US
 

Offline coppice

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #106 on: December 04, 2015, 03:50:51 am »
Interesting job descriptions. They are looking at vision based methods of finding the target devices to beam at? That sounds a rather weird approach, but it does help with ensure unobstructed line of sight beaming, I guess.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #107 on: December 04, 2015, 03:52:14 am »
Those jobs are worded like they are almost starting from scratch again  :-//
Doesn't sounds like job descriptions for extra people to get over the last hurdle into production.

My favourite quote is:
Quote
Think around corners. Always have 3 backup plans.
Yeah, you need backup plans when you realise that your whole fundamental concept is impractical in the real word
 

Offline coppice

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #108 on: December 04, 2015, 03:55:41 am »
Those jobs are worded like they are almost starting from scratch again  :-//
Doesn't sounds like job descriptions for extra people to get over the last hurdle into production.

My favourite quote is:
Quote
Think around corners. Always have 3 backup plans.
Yeah, you need backup plans when you realise that your whole fundamental concept is impractical in the real word
They certainly don't sound like jobs to grow a team. They sound more like they have lost everyone, and are recruiting a replacement team.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #109 on: December 04, 2015, 03:57:36 am »
Interesting job descriptions. They are looking at vision based methods of finding the target devices to beam at? That sounds a rather weird approach

It sounds like a getting desperate approach to me.
Their biggest problem (among many) is efficency. Efficiency is practically zero unless you know precisely where the phone is at least several meters away and you can steer your beam toward it. And then because people are pesky and move around all the time and block your beam, you need to be able to have multiple transmitters and now perhaps vision system to see if the phone is line of sight, and then switch transmitters as required.

Ubeam has to be the ultimate project that has fallen down the rabbit hole of impracticality.
« Last Edit: December 04, 2015, 04:09:55 am by EEVblog »
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #110 on: December 04, 2015, 03:58:37 am »
They certainly don't sound like jobs to grow a team. They sound more like they have lost everyone, and are recruiting a replacement team.

Yup, sounds precisely like that.
 

Offline miguelvp

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #111 on: December 04, 2015, 04:17:05 am »
but... dreams can come true right?  :-//

You only need to have a vision and it all can be achieved (by hiring a brand new team)

 :-DD
 

Offline zapta

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #112 on: December 04, 2015, 05:39:15 am »
Here Ted presentation is the last Ted video I ever watched.  I did respect it until then.

 

Offline coppice

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #113 on: December 04, 2015, 05:42:17 am »
Here Ted presentation is the last Ted video I ever watched.  I did respect it until then.
Did you notice that was a TEDx talk, and not a real TED one? I don't know if they make any attempt to control quality for those external events, but most of the truly iffy talks are TEDx ones.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #114 on: December 04, 2015, 05:56:24 am »
Poor Meredith seems a bit on edge:
http://fortune.com/2015/12/02/meredith-perry-ubeam-criticism-science/
Video:
http://for.tn/1TvzoBs

Nobody is claiming it "breaks the laws of physics"   :palm:
They (we) are claiming that it's not a viable practical solution (except perhaps in niche use scenarios)

A quote from the article:
Quote
If it’s real, Mark Cuban believes it is “a zillion-dollar idea.” Yes, there are wireless charging mats, but they require you to lay your phone on a surface. What Perry has said uBeam will do is “true” wireless charging, where your phone’s battery can charge from across a room, sans wires.

Err, no it's not  :palm:
UBeam can't be used with your phone sitting face up on the table. And It can't be used while you are holding it. About as far from "true" wireless power as you can get!
« Last Edit: December 04, 2015, 06:00:22 am by EEVblog »
 

Offline zapta

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #115 on: December 04, 2015, 06:10:36 am »
Here Ted presentation is the last Ted video I ever watched.  I did respect it until then.
Did you notice that was a TEDx talk, and not a real TED one? I don't know if they make any attempt to control quality for those external events, but most of the truly iffy talks are TEDx ones.

It's like having CERNx promoting astrology. Still the same brand as CERN.
 

Offline coppice

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #116 on: December 04, 2015, 06:20:37 am »
Poor Meredith seems a bit on edge:
http://fortune.com/2015/12/02/meredith-perry-ubeam-criticism-science/
Video:
http://for.tn/1TvzoBs

Nobody is claiming it "breaks the laws of physics"   :palm:
They (we) are claiming that it's not a viable practical solution (except perhaps in niche use scenarios)
That Fortune article references this http://independentscience.tumblr.com/post/101728968844/ultrasound-thermodynamics-and-robot-overlords as something supporting the viability of ubeam. Try reading it. Its quite amusing in how it tears the idea to pieces.
« Last Edit: December 04, 2015, 07:58:36 am by coppice »
 

Offline Delta

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #117 on: December 04, 2015, 07:57:05 am »
I might apply for the job of "Super Technician"!  Is it an Americanism for "Supervising Technician", or just a tech who is absolutely super at their job?  O0
 

Offline coppice

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #118 on: December 04, 2015, 08:00:06 am »
I might apply for the job of "Super Technician"!  Is it an Americanism for "Supervising Technician", or just a tech who is absolutely super at their job?  O0
I think a Super Technician is someone who reports to a Super Duper Technician.

I miss the old days when people from Apple would give you a business card with a job title like "Hardware Wizzkid".
« Last Edit: December 04, 2015, 08:02:15 am by coppice »
 

Offline Howardlong

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #119 on: December 04, 2015, 08:46:00 am »
I wonder why the previous incumbants left?

 

Offline Fungus

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #120 on: December 04, 2015, 09:24:11 am »
Quote
Any theories supporting or questioning uBeam’s science are only theories until there’s an actual concrete product.

Where have we heard that before...?  :palm:

 

Offline GNU_Ninja

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #121 on: December 04, 2015, 09:46:43 am »
It's like having CERNx promoting astrology. Still the same brand as CERN.


Patterns in this proton proton collision indicate romance is in the air, avoid the use of 22 kohm resistors and PNP transistors in your next project. Do not wear a hat next Tuesday.

Mystic CERN predicts  ;)
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #122 on: December 04, 2015, 10:15:10 am »
And if you want to know Ms Perry’s views on physics and the laws of thermodynamics, here you go:
http://meredithperry.tumblr.com/post/106297094145/a-brief-negation-of-time

Quote
Like the question of time, all things we know about the universe are only theories.
And yes folks, she has a science degree.
« Last Edit: December 04, 2015, 10:21:36 am by EEVblog »
 

Offline Artlav

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #123 on: December 04, 2015, 10:40:08 am »
Funny thing is, she is not wrong.
In the same sense that it's not wrong to say that you can win a jackpot a 100 times in a row.
Or not wrong to say that all the air in a room can spontaneously move to one side of the room.

Now, how would you explain to common folks that "not wrong" is not the same as "can be expected to ever happen"?
 

Offline coppice

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #124 on: December 04, 2015, 10:43:20 am »
And if you want to know Ms Perry’s views on physics and the laws of thermodynamics, here you go:
http://meredithperry.tumblr.com/post/106297094145/a-brief-negation-of-time

Quote
Like the question of time, all things we know about the universe are only theories.
And yes folks, she has a science degree.
As Tim Minchin says of that twisting of the word theory: Gravity is only a theory. Maybe she'll just float away.
« Last Edit: December 04, 2015, 10:46:54 am by coppice »
 


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