The uBeam FAQ

[zapta]

Funny thing is, she is not wrong.
In the same sense that it's not wrong to say that you can win a jackpot a 100 times in a row.
Or not wrong to say that all the air in a room can spontaneously move to one side of the room.

Now, how would you explain to common folks that "not wrong" is not the same as "can be expected to ever happen"?

A good lie is built around a kernel of truth. People assume naively that if a part is true then so is the rest. If we can practically transfer 1uw by ultrasound, we can also do the same with 10w.

Looking at the TEDx video, all the signs of a con man and her investors fell for it. Suckers.

[EEVblog]

Looking at the TEDx video, all the signs of a con man and her investors fell for it. Suckers.

I think it's clear that she deeply believes it is practical, so it's not a con.
But yes, they are suckers for believing it is practical, she sold them a good story. All they had to do was a bit of real due diligence like Lee Gomes did in his excellent IEEE article and it should have given them more than enough to be highly skeptical. But the investors are believers too, they work in a world where hey only need the slightest hint of "plausible" in order to roll the dice on a massive pay day wet dream.

[Fungus]

Looking at the TEDx video, all the signs of a con man and her investors fell for it. Suckers.

I think it's clear that she deeply believes it is practical, so it's not a con.

Yep, I actually believe that she thinks that anything that isn't denied by the laws of physics is just an engineering problem.

Find the right engineer? Problem solved!

It hasn't occurred to her that the laws of physics can rule things out purely in terms of practicality, eg. the warp engine for spaceships or brute forcing 128 bit encryption. Both of those are possible on paper, neither will ever happen in practice no matter who attempts them.

It looks like she currently believes a high intensity 'beam' of ultrasound could be aimed at a phone using some sort of optical tracking. Making that work is just another engineering problem. 

[andy o]

Well, she did read A Brief History of Time, you know.

After re-visiting Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time”, I was inspired to revisit some of my own theories about time

That has got to be the mostest Dunning-Krugerest sentence I've read in a while.

[AF6LJ]

We use to have something in this country called "Outcome Based Education" In short it was all about teaching to pass the test.


I think this person, the one who came up with this idea has been a victim of OBE...
Sound waves no matter how new and improved, or ultra won't get any work done at a distance. This beats the Batterizer for stupid project of the Decade.

[Fungus]

Sound waves no matter how new and improved, or ultra won't get any work done at a distance.

Prove it. 

[GNU_Ninja]

Sound waves no matter how new and improved, or ultra won't get any work done at a distance.

Prove it. 

If you can hear it. Work is being done on your eardrum

[Fungus]

Sound waves no matter how new and improved, or ultra won't get any work done at a distance.

Prove it. 

If you can hear it. Energy is doing some work on your eardrum 

Proof that sound can do work at a distance!

Everything else is just engineering (and thinking outside the box, obviously!)

[zapta]

Looking at the TEDx video, all the signs of a con man and her investors fell for it. Suckers.

I think it's clear that she deeply believes it is practical, so it's not a con.

Some people are wired differently than most of us. They can lie with conviction and confidence (hence the 'con' in con man) and don't have the normal qualms that most people have. They are not evil, just wired differently. Don't fall for that over confidence.

I worked once very closely with a person like that and it was an eye opener for me. All the normal assumptions about human behavior and minimal decency don't apply, and when I saw that Ted video many red flagged popped up. I am sure that the people that worked with her and now left the company have many interesting stories to tell.

Gomes put in in nice words but basically it's about lying:

.. people familiar with the situation say that uBeam engineers felt pressured by management to describe the technology in more optimistic terms than they were comfortable with.

[AF6LJ]

Sound waves no matter how new and improved, or ultra won't get any work done at a distance.

Prove it. 

It won't be doing enough work to charge a battery at any reasonable rate.
Common sense requires no proof...
Want butter for that popcorn??

[AF6LJ]

I wonder what the health effects are from long term exposure to ultrasound are.

[Howardlong]

I wonder what the health effects are from long term exposure to ultrasound are.

[Dongulus]

I wouldn't mind relocating up to Santa Monica. Maybe I should apply and get a share of some of that VC money.

Who knows? When uBeam becomes the next revolution in charging technology I may stand to boatload a lot of money.

[AF6LJ]

I heard they are also working on cold fusion and an economical process for turning led into gold.

Here is a song for all the U Beam fans, you and Batterizer mavens...

[timb]

When the whole project finally collapses on her, I predict she'll pull the "I wasn't allowed to be successful because I'm a *woman* in engineering" card. She's already setting up for it.

[AF6LJ]

When the whole project finally collapses on her, I predict she'll pull the "I wasn't allowed to be successful because I'm a *woman* in engineering" card. She's already setting up for it.

I have no respect for a female who pulls that without la few pounds of evidence, a lawyer and witnesses to back her up.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Looking at the TEDx video, all the signs of a con man and her investors fell for it. Suckers.

I think it's clear that she deeply believes it is practical, so it's not a con.

I'm not sure she understands that  practicality is way more important than whether it's possible.
If she can show that it's possible, she'll think she's proved she was right, and the subsequent failure will be down to the business side of things and then start whinging on about being a victim.

[EEVblog]

I'm not sure she understands that  practicality is way more important than whether it's possible.

She has to by now at least understand of difficulty of executing this in practice, but she obviously thinks that any practicality problem is solvable and that it will be as  amazing s revolution as she thinks it must be. Because, you know, she thought of it, and she's a "Technology innovator" 

If she can show that it's possible, she'll think she's proved she was right, and the subsequent failure will be down to the business side of things and then start whinging on about being a victim.

The ultimate failure and the blame game will be funny to watch.
They do have an "out" here, as they no doubt have some interesting ultrasound tech that might be spun off into some niche app. Heck, someone might even want to buy it for that.
But this thing was supposed to be the next VC "unicorn" (A billion dollar startup) because it was supposed to revolutionise the world. So I think this one will go completely bust.

And it must go bust, because anyone with any technical sense knows it can't be practical. Heck, UBeam have practically admitted it by saying it can't work through clothes or bodies etc. And the thing is supposed to be a clip on phone cover, so it obviously can't work flat on the bench face up, or while holding it. And the idea will die if it's a dongle people have to carry.
There is simply no way this can succeed as promised. It's done.

[Dongulus]

When the whole project finally collapses on her, I predict she'll pull the "I wasn't allowed to be successful because I'm a *woman* in engineering" card. She's already setting up for it.

I have no respect for a female who pulls that without la few pounds of evidence, a lawyer and witnesses to back her up.

Ahem... Carly Fiorina

[zapta]

When the whole project finally collapses on her, I predict she'll pull the "I wasn't allowed to be successful because I'm a *woman* in engineering" card. She's already setting up for it.

And I predict that a few years after this company will fold she will have another startup and have new investors. There are always new suckers.

[AF6LJ]

When the whole project finally collapses on her, I predict she'll pull the "I wasn't allowed to be successful because I'm a *woman* in engineering" card. She's already setting up for it.

I have no respect for a female who pulls that without la few pounds of evidence, a lawyer and witnesses to back her up.

Ahem... Carly Fiorina

That Scank.

[skipjackrc4]

I'm thinking about starting a competing company--aquaBeam.

Rather than installing ultrasound transducers on phones, we'll use water wheels.  A high pressure stream of water will be directed toward the phone from an overhead charging station, thus spinning the wheel and charging the phone.  Worried that a stream of water won't have enough power to charge your power hungry laptop?  No worries!  Select locations will be equipped with a fire hose capable of delivering many watts of power.

You may be thinking that the use of water wheels will not lead to anything practical.  Let me remind you that, according to some, Nikola Tesla once said "The water wheel is the most efficient form of power conversion known to mankind".  If Tesla might have believed in it, so should you!

 O0

[zapta]

I have no respect for a female who pulls that without la few pounds of evidence, a lawyer and witnesses to back her up.

Ahem... Carly Fiorina

That Scank.

Stay classy AF6LJ.

[timb]

I'm thinking about starting a competing company--aquaBeam.

Rather than installing ultrasound transducers on phones, we'll use water wheels.  A high pressure stream of water will be directed toward the phone from an overhead charging station, thus spinning the wheel and charging the phone.  Worried that a stream of water won't have enough power to charge your power hungry laptop?  No worries!  Select locations will be equipped with a fire hose capable of delivering many watts of power.

You may be thinking that the use of water wheels will not lead to anything practical.  Let me remind you that, according to some, Nikola Tesla once said "The water wheel is the most efficient form of power conversion known to mankind".  If Tesla might have believed in it, so should you!

 O0

You could change things really fast this way as there's no risk of overheating! I'd like to invest $10 Million. Let's make this shit happen!

[Fungus]

Sound waves no matter how new and improved, or ultra won't get any work done at a distance.

Prove it. 

It won't be doing enough work to charge a battery at any reasonable rate.
Common sense requires no proof...

What won't? What's "it"?