uBeam goes post-Tesla, leaving electric fields behind

Oct 9, 2015 09:24 GMT  ·  By

Traditionally, strong radio waves are usually dangerous to humans and animals, and basically, the shorter the wavelength gets for higher intensity, the more damaging it is. Usually, electromagnetic radiation has been often a dismissed issue by wireless chargers manufacturers, but this time this is gone completely.

Using the same principle of induction since the days of Nikola Tesla, wireless charging features two coils, one for charging and the other for receiving, and around them there is an electromagnetic field that allows energy to be discharged from one coil to another. This way current flows freely through the air between bipolar coils and recharges phones batteries.

Well, uBeam doesn't use that. Instead of Tesla's electromagnetic fields that obviously transmit electromagnetic radiation, uBeam uses ultrasonic energy, or simply ultrasound. This is the type of wireless energy that can reliably, and most of all safely, transmit energy wirelessly. Why does it matter more? Because it can be used on over-distance wireless power transmission without endangering thousands of people's health.

Started in 2011, it has been seen by skeptics as a fraud since its developers refused to give up the details of how it works. Now they've apparently made the know-how public, explaining how and what uBeam does exactly. On their official website, the uBeam team says they're using ultrasound that goes over the human and dog hearing limit at 20 kHz.

Going post-Tesla, uBeam thinks energy fields can be 100% safe with sound

Using an ultrasonic transducer and the most complex acoustic phased array transmitter ever built, the sound gets to a receiver, like a microphone, and picks up the sound and converts it into usable energy. uBeam says it managed to file 30 patents that prove the technology's authenticity and reliability.

This incredible new technology will allow to charge and send data to multiple phones or other electronics moving around in a room, while phones will be getting slimmer and more light thanks to batteries getting smaller since ultrasound charging could be anywhere without posing any danger to anybody.

uBeam's founder Meredith Perry managed to get a $23 million fund from a number of top investors after she posted a 3000+ word essay on uBeam's website detailing how exactly this technology will work, convincing lots of former skeptics about the feasibility of this new post-Tesla design. Now we only have to wait and see if this new idea works after all.

Your typical electromagnetic spectrum, left of light is weak, right is damaging
Your typical electromagnetic spectrum, left of light is weak, right is damaging

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uBeam ultrasound transmitters are real, and they really work
Your typical electromagnetic spectrum, left of light is weak, right is damaging
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