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| EEVblog:
--- Quote from: PaulReynolds on March 06, 2019, 08:21:38 am --- --- Quote from: StillTrying on February 26, 2019, 11:08:43 am ---uBeam to Release & Demonstrate Customer Development Kits "We are delighted to showcase our new Customer Development Kits at these two important forums," said Simon McElrea, uBeam CEO. "These kits include all of the critical hardware and software elements required to enable contracted customers to seamlessly integrate uBeam's ultrasonic Wireless Energy technology into their end products." --- End quote --- I think the important word in the first part is "showcase". Will anyone outside the company get their hands on them to actually evaluate? Data sheets? Pricing? (Rhetorical questions) --- End quote --- I think the important word is contracted. They won't show it to anyone unless they are contracted or at least very serious about a contract to license the tech. And because they have absolutely no consumer game left to play, they have to rely on big ticket companies to sign up and use the tech for some niche app, or just something to dispose of some cash on. They are just buying time until they can sell the company for whatever they can get. |
| sdpkom:
--- Quote from: EEVblog on January 14, 2019, 10:43:45 am ---This is the highest res photo available --- End quote --- I talked to one of the people who got a private demo of the kit yesyerday. They have two transmitters... the big one has an ir camera and looks like the one shown on their twitter feed. It locates a receiver and sends power to it. It can light some LEDs at ~6 ft with a reciever that is ~10cm x 15 cm x 3 cm. They say it is safe and was tested by a secret 3rd party. They dont discuss the components. Say it can deliver 1w at ~2 feet, but did not show phone charging. Transmission does not stop completly if the beam is blocked, they say its not needed. If the receiver is moved... it finds it after a few seconds. The kit consists of a smaller transmitter version. The smaller transmitter sends constant high power sound forward. Does not locate receivers and does move the beam. Does not ever stop transmitting. If you place a receiver in front of it, it can turn on an LED at ~1 ft. They say its all made out of commercially available components and is ready to go to market. The receiver can move an inch or two sideways and still works. Will get more info tomorrow |
| PaulReynolds:
--- Quote from: sdpkom on March 08, 2019, 05:48:29 pm --- I talked to one of the people who got a private demo of the kit yesyerday. ... Will get more info tomorrow --- End quote --- With the caveat of basing my opinion here on what you've been told - even taking into account that I thought I'd be underwhelmed, I'm underwhelmed, and tbh shocked they'd go that route with the demo kit. My first "wow" here is related to safety - the admission that they can't control random exposure for safety IMO kills this 'product' right here, it's a lawsuit waiting to happen (grating lobes always meant random exposure but this is the main lobe too). That it's been evaluated for safety by a "secret 3rd party" sets off a ton of alarm bells, if I were them and had such a conclusive report I'd be announcing it everywhere - if it's really definitive it would be impossible for people like me to poke holes in it, so release away. Press should not ever let them get away with that, and I doubt any sane manufacturer they are trying to license to will either (but, hey, Dialog paid Energous $25m). I'm suspicious of "1 watt at 2 feet" - again if that could be done, it would be something I'd be publicizing as much as possible, an LED does not say "1 watt". IMO A transmitter that sends power only forward, with no steering, and uses only commercially available components sounds like they soldered a bunch of Muratas to a board in parallel and used the natural focus of ultrasound to create a single point focus about 25/30cm out and a couple of inches across, which does not need $40m and several years to make. Their own Oct 2017 fundraising document described the amazing proprietary transducers they had as central to their commercial advantage, and they are instead using something you can overnight from Digikey for $3? What is the value proposition above plugging into a wire or placing on a Qi charge pad? How is this in any way better than what Powercast already sell? To see what a small transmitter such as described looks like, see this: https://www.soundlazer.com/ This was a Kickstarter, and was built with around $125,000 through to commercialization with nice packaging. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/richardhaberkern/soundlazer What is the IP moat that stops others? Why would you let anyone see that demo kit? IMO it just proves you have almost nothing. Just... wow. |
| KL27x:
--- Quote ---Unfortunately there are already multiple folding bike helmets available, such as this one: https://www.park-and-diamond.com/ --- End quote --- This is exactly what Meredith should work on. I wonder what kind of magic beans this is made out of to prevent concussions and split noggins "just as well as traditional helmets." The construction, military, police, and professional sports industries would like to know. If you put a battery and enough sensors and microcontrollers, memory metal, and tiny air bags, maybe she could pull it off (the fundraising part). Dunno, maybe it's made out of depleted uranium, so your head just keeps going through whatever you hit. |
| sdpkom:
Some more info, They claim being able to transmit 1W at 1 meter, hunderds of mWs at 2m and 10s of mW at 5m, but when asking a bit more details, this was for an unspecified receiver size, unspecified transmitter model and unknown alignment. When they demo the system, they hold the receiver with fingers blocking parts of the beam, but not the white square. I assume this means it's at least safe enough so that it does not hurt. The receiver they demo is not delivering measurable power (2 wires you can connect to a meter, or some USB you can connect to a phone) instead it has an array of approximately 14x16 red LEDs which are not very bright to look at. When it's working, only about a 1/3 of the LEDs are lit. Assuming the LEDs are 5mW LEDs, this would be translated to about 350mW of usable power at short distance. The demo kit includes a slightly smaller receiver, approximately half the size. The kit includes the small transmitter, which does not lock on receivers but rather has a fixed focus and is always on. During conversation they said that All components of the kit are commercially available and ready to go to production. Its completely safe, when asking about Israel (demo was in Israel) they avoided the question. They said it's certified as safe by a 3rd party, they avoided answering who is the 3rd party. They avoided all questions about dBs in either side (transmitter or receiver). |
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