Ben Popper, writing for The Verge:
Last week a former engineer from the much hyped wireless charging startup uBeam left some scathing criticism of the company on his blog. He compared uBeam to the now disgraced startup Theranos, saying that uBeam has avoided any full-fledged public demonstrations because its technology doesn’t work as advertised. While it can do some very limited charging over a short distance, he allowed, the basic laws of physics prevent the product from being practical at any commercial level.
And:
Earlier this year Bloomberg reported that Apple was hoping to add wireless charging to the new iPhone it releases in 2017. And the Bloomberg report specified that Apple wanted to go beyond the minor convenience of a charging mat — which lets you avoid the cable, but doesn’t fully free up your device. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Apple wants to implement a much more advanced technology that would allow you to walk around a room and have your phone charging the entire time.
I can’t speak to the physics at work here, but I’ve never seen any demonstration that shows anything close to this capability. Is this a pipe dream? Rumor mongering? Or is there a proof of concept inside a black draped room in an Apple R&D lab?
My instinct is that the loss of efficiency as you move further and further from direct contact would make this impossible. But I thought quantum entanglement was impossible, too, and that has been demonstrated. We shall see.
Distances have to be quite short for this to work. Bear this in mind too – Apple is not known for this type of bleeding edge innovation. Not that they are not capable of it; but it’s not where they invest their R&D. Typically, whatever innovative feature you see in an Apple product, someone else has either demonstrated it working quite well or has been shipping products with it in low volumes. Apple’s speciality is making such innovations work better with less friction.
http://www.mit.edu/~soljacic/wireless-power_AoP.pdf
Probably possible, but not with uBeam’s ultrasound. The MIT tech was coupling EM waves, that seems much more likely
And of course, it didn’t take author too long to refer to last quarters iPhone sales.
Yeesh, if any other company sold that many phones everyone would be ecstatic.
There’s a TED Talk that displays something akin to wireless power over 10-12 inch distance. It’s not exactly a svelte Apple-like solution though.
Also some work I’ve read about using wireless power delivered by laser for aircraft/spacecraft. No idea if that could ever be practical at a consumer level product. Perhaps viable for car charging from a satellite.
This isn’t a tech problem I need solved.
I have a feeling that this will involve some sort of beam-forming array.