Watch | Engineering student builds voice-controlled wheelchair in Bihar

What Stephen Hawking drives, may soon be available here. Not as much sophisticated as the one used by the world acclaimed physicist and cosmologist, a Bihar boy has designed a voice-controlled, battery-operated wheelchair. A traditional wheelchair, it uses voice command for four basic movements — left, right, forward and reverse. Inventor Ashutosh Prakash, a final semester student of the Birla Institute of Technology,Patna, says the wheelchair stops automatically when it encounters an obstacle or approaches a staircase.“It senses unevenness on the floor, near a staircase and stops, ensuring the safety of the person using it,” he says. With the present specification, which can take up to 80 kgs weight, it costs `20,000. The machine has a voice-processor, microcontrollers to amplify control signals, motor and battery, besides microchips.“Depending on the weight of a person using it, the wheelchair may need stronger battery and motor, adding to its cost,” he says.