If this really works, the only options I see are that a) it works at a massively ineffective power transfer rate or b) it is dangerous if you accidentally get in the focused beam (or c) a combination of the two). Any kind of beamforming which can get a decent power transfer will, naturally, transfer that energy into whatever is where the power is focused. Granted, uBeam claims to stop power transfer if line of sight between beamer and device is blocked, but then you are counting on a safety mechanism which is "default off" in some sense. I personally would want to see more tests than a 5 week pig trial as mentioned in the techcrunch piece [1]. After all, radium used to be seen as a "health medicine" back in the early 1900s - it was only after years we realized that radiation was really, really dangerous. It would be great to ensure that kind of thing would not happen in this case - but this means something like a multi-year trial period, which is not good for a startup.
If it is inefficient, the energy issues we already have in the world make it seem irresponsible (to me at least) to use something that operates even more inefficiently than the current system, which is already causing global problems with respect to energy consumption and generation. Even inductive chargers have efficiency issues, and it seems like converting to ultrasound and back would have some inherent loss, though it is really dependent on the quality of implementation. If they can avoid danger, and only have inefficiency issues, I could see some success here for low-energy requirement devices.
If it is dangerous, well that is pretty obvious. No one wants to slow microwave their dog/child/foot/hand if the beamforming is slightly off.
I just don't see a way for this product (or any number of other related products, or RF energy harnessing generally) to succeed without some (unknown) fundamental breakthrough or incredibly expensive hardware.
If it is inefficient, the energy issues we already have in the world make it seem irresponsible (to me at least) to use something that operates even more inefficiently than the current system, which is already causing global problems with respect to energy consumption and generation. Even inductive chargers have efficiency issues, and it seems like converting to ultrasound and back would have some inherent loss, though it is really dependent on the quality of implementation. If they can avoid danger, and only have inefficiency issues, I could see some success here for low-energy requirement devices.
If it is dangerous, well that is pretty obvious. No one wants to slow microwave their dog/child/foot/hand if the beamforming is slightly off.
I just don't see a way for this product (or any number of other related products, or RF energy harnessing generally) to succeed without some (unknown) fundamental breakthrough or incredibly expensive hardware.
[1] http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/08/how-ubeam-works/?ncid=rss&u...