A research team at the Southern Taiwan University of Technology in Tainan County has invented a new type of solar powered wheelchair which integrates the functions of existing manual and electric wheelchairs and can be sold for a cheaper price, the university said yesterday.
Both hand-powered and electric wheelchairs on the market have their own drawbacks, with the former prone to causing muscle ache and the latter lead to a decline in cardiopulmonary function due to a lack of exercise, the sources said.
Against this backdrop, a research team in the university's Mechanical Engineering Department has tried to modify conventional wheelchairs to use solar energy.
The new invention was designed to provide renewable energy resources without worrying about power supply problem and the drawbacks of the traditional wheelchairs.
A conventional fully-powered electric wheelchair can go approximately 7km on a charge, but in contrast, a solar powered wheelchair can go 10km to 12km.
The price of a traditional electric wheelchair stands between NT$30,000 to NT$50,000, while the price of a solar powered wheelchair is likely to be priced below NT$15,000 after going into mass production.
The product won a prize in a university invention contest earlier this year. The design team has applied for a patent on the invention.
Noting that the wheelchair-using population in Taiwan is estimated at more than 100,000, the university said the innovation will be a boon to them.
A report by the Council for Economic Planning and Development said Taiwan ranked first in the world in eight categories of high-tech products last year, including electric mobility scooters and electric wheelchairs, taking 45 percent of the global market.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
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A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
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