Genius retired Institute of Technical Education (ITE) lecturer, Tan Ban Ho, is the creator of the two-seater e-wheelchair.

The 73-year-old first bought a S$600 unicycle in September 2016 to aid in his outings with his wife, who is wheelchair-bound.

Riding the unicycle was a substitute for walking.

Unicycle wheelchair innovation

However, in slightly over a year after getting his unicycle, Tan continued to improvise on his prototype to come up with a fully controllable two-seater e-wheelchair.

It turns out, Tan, who has knowledge of electronics, was not done.

He has also recently unveiled a hoverboard wheelchair that he put together by himself.

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Hoverchair

Also known as a "hoverchair", this device replaces the front wheels of a wheelchair with a hoverboard.

Tan's inspiration for this device came from witnessing the difficulty seniors faced when using their hands to manually push their wheelchairs.

By attaching a hoverboard, the control of movement becomes intuitive and effortless as this modification allows the rider to easily manoeuvre the wheelchair by stepping lightly on the sensor pads, by tipping his or her toes or heels accordingly.

Tan explained:

“I noticed that many wheelchair-bound seniors struggle to push themselves using their arms as they don’t have enough strength. It happened to my daughter when she fell ill and became frail. I saw how her mobility was hindered. All these incidents inspired me to devise a solution to help people in wheelchairs move about easily... that’s how I thought of attaching a hoverboard to the wheelchair.”

Cheap improvement

Moreover, the hoverboard he uses measures about 20cm across and fits the wheelchair perfectly.

His modifications are also cost-efficient.

He used some aluminium blocks to attach the hoverboard to the wheelchair and added a PVC pipe below to prevent the board from spinning.

Total extra costs?

S$250.