uBeam promises to establish safe energy transfer through ultrasound

Meredith Perry

uBeam has announced the creation of its highly efficient wireless transmitters and receivers. According to the company, their equipment works by safely and efficiently applying energy transfer through ultrasonic waves.

The company has already received investments worth more than $ 23 million . Meredith Perry, a managing company, says such a large investment is due to the complexity of their technology. She mentioned in an interview that “all the other investments of sponsors from Silicon Valley are all sorts of applications and social networks,” and their technology is “so complicated that it seems to be fraud.”

The existence of the first technology prototype became known back in 2011. Then the novelty caused a wave of skepticism, since uBeam announced the safe transfer of energy through the air without going into details - they were afraid that competitors would try to steal success by copying this technology. UBeam employs 20 people and the company has already registered three dozen different patents.

Indeed, no one has yet seen working devices in action, and the description of their work looks doubtful. The company promises that the technology will save humanity from using wires in a house or apartment, and that a single transmitter will be able to power and charge several mobile and other devices at a distance. At the same time, in a long and rather vague description of the technology, statements are made about its effectiveness and safety, but no specific figures, photos, videos, and other materials are given.



Judging by the explanations on the company's website , the technology works as follows. Located somewhere on the wall of the house, the transmitter automatically detects a device that needs energy, and transfers energy to it through ultrasonic vibrations along the focused beam.

An ultrasound transducer turns it into electricity and energizes the consumer. Technology operates only on line of sight. If any foreign object appears between the transmitter and the powered device, transmission stops. Thus, the transmitter does not spend energy all the time. In addition, this means that charging the device located in another room in a bag, or even in a pocket, will not work.

According to TechCrunch, the uBeam equipment works with ultrasound in the range from 45 to 75 KHz, and is capable of transmitting power of at least 1.5 W, using sound output power in the range from 145dB to 155dB. Specialists do not see anything impossible in such a technology, but there are difficulties with its implementation.

The company does not disclose the estimated cost of the end devices. How uBeam can cope with its task is time to tell. Indeed, in the struggle to rid people of wires she already has serious competitors.

WiTricity already has ready-made devices operating on the principle of resonant electromagnetic induction. The technology is also called WiTricity . And the company Energous Corporation already has prototypes of equipment that transmits and receives energy through radio waves. Their technology is called WattUp.