uBeam wireless charging with ultrasound

[chicken]

Not exactly crowdfunded, but...

uBeam claims to be able to wirelessly charge cell phones in a room, and ultimately even stadiums, by ultrasound.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/bits/2014/08/06/ubeam-technology-will-enable-people-to-charge-devices-through-the-air/
 
Doesn't sound very realistic to me, at least with healthy power levels (for humans or other species like dogs and bats). And if it really works, why not charge with environmental noise already present? e.g. while walking noisy city streets.

[miguelvp]

Noisy city streets wont detach grime from your jewelry or sanitize food containers or medical tools.

But I hear you (pun intended) I wouldn't want to be bombarded with 20 to 400 KHz of vibrations. I mean they use that to target kidney stones and calcium deposits in your body.

[chicken]

Noisy city streets wont detach grime from your jewelry or sanitize food containers or medical tools.

good point, but don't ultrasound cleaners use a liquid as medium and some serious db?

But I hear you (pun intended) I wouldn't want to be bombarded with 20 to 400 KHz of vibrations. I mean they use that to target kidney stones and calcium deposits in your body.

At least it will be popular in retirement homes

[PULSSAIR]

But I hear you (pun intended) I wouldn't want to be bombarded with 20 to 400 KHz of vibrations. I mean they use that to target kidney stones and calcium deposits in your body.

Why do you complain?You get your phone charged and get rid of your kidney stone as a bonus

[mikeselectricstuff]

This registers a 10 on my bullshit-ometer. 
Can't see that you could practically get sufficient power at all, let alone safely, or form a 5mm thick transducer.

[fcb]

I don't think you need worry about this taking off (and the potential consequences of living in high intensity ultrasound fields).  IMHO it will end up as an solution to some niche industrial problem at best.

[Eden]

Besides the health issues, I think there are plenty of usability issues. Quoting from the NYT article: "uBeam users would have to buy transmitters for each room." and "But uBeam says that will change because its technology can transmit farther distances, and because the company expects to have the transmitters in many places that people visit." 
Sounds very vague and too optimistic. I can't imagine people running and buying a transmitter for every room.

[CronusWorks]

"The technology makes it possible for a device to move freely around a room, in a pocket or purse, while constantly charging."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but ultrasonic frequencies won't pass through air and then through fabrics very well...And they also tend to bounce off hard surfaces.

[sunnyhighway]

"The technology makes it possible for a device to move freely around a room, in a pocket or purse, while constantly charging."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but ultrasonic frequencies won't pass through air and then through fabrics very well...And they also tend to bounce off hard surfaces.

The ultrasound doesn't have to be able to pass trough fabrics.

They said they only had to figure out a way to have te charger to constantly point toward your device whilst charging.
I guess this can easily be done by demanding the user to buy bigger pockets or purses which comfortably fits both the device and charger at the same time.

See.... problem solved.... 

[miguelvp]

I don't know about ultrasounds being able to go through purses, but I surely find it a annoying when regular audible sound goes through the purses, pockets when their ring tone is set to a high volume and sound has no problem escaping the enclosed sound.