Hawking

What happened to the special wheelchair used by Stephen Hawking after his death? What was so special about this chair that his thoughts were transformed into writing?

The wheelchair used by world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has sold for around Rs 33 million and the manuscript of his PhD research paper has sold for Rs 6.5 crore.

The price of the motorized wheelchair, which was placed in an online auction after a scientist Stephen Hawking was paralyzed after suffering from motor neurone disease, rose to ৬ 296,750. The base price was set at 15,000 pounds.

The money from the sale of the chairs was sent to two charities, the Stephen Hawking Foundation and the Motor Neuron Diseases Association.

Hawking's words became obscure from the age of 21. And the talk stopped completely from 1975. Hawking traveled to Geneva that year to attend the CERN event. In case of sudden pneumonia, tracheotomy (inserting a windpipe through a hole in the throat) is required to normalize breathing. Then he lost his speech.

After losing his speech, the famous physicist started talking using spelling cards. He used to say his words by writing letters one by one. It was a lot of patience. He also tried to explain with his eyes what he wanted to say.

Seeing Hawking's plight, his physicist friend Martin King secretly contacted the California company WordPlus. They were working on a program called ‘Equalizer’, where words could be interpreted through a computer by clicking on a handheld device.

Added to Hawking for Equalizer is a speech synthesizer made by a company called SpeechPlus. It is attached to the handle of a wheelchair. Hand gestures were written on the computer through the instrument. And that word floated through the synthesizer.

Hawking could express up to 15 mechanical sounds in one minute. The first thing he said was, "We need an assistant, we have to finish a brief history of time."

After spending more than a decade in this way, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore met Hawking in 1997. He urged Hawking to use Intel's original computer with a microprocessor. Intel has been providing Hawking with all the technical support since then. They changed his computer every two years. In this way, after several years, the strength of the Samano response in 2008 was gone. His body became completely paralyzed. Then his assistant invented a new device. This device called ‘Chick Speech’, which works with the help of infrared rays, is fitted with Hawking glasses. And the other part of the device is put on his cheek with software.

So far his head has been bent to one side. And one side of the cheek becomes completely useless. Then only one cheek muscle works. The software called 'Chick Speech' could have caused the vibration of the muscle on one side of that cheek.

However, in 2011 the muscles on one side of the cheek also stopped moving. Hawking could only say two words at the last minute. He then wrote to Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, ‘The pace of speaking has slowed down. Can your company help? '

Then, on Hawking's 70th birthday, the entire Intel lab was brought to Cambridge. Despite many attempts, Hawking's ability to speak did not increase.