This Voice-Controlled Device From IIT Students Can Feed People Without Arms

With “FoodBuddy”-a dining assistant developed by two IIT Gandhinagar students, people without arms can use a voice command to feed themselves. FoodBuddy can help them with everything, from lifting the spoon to lowering it down onto the plate.

Users can use either Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant to give a voice command. Praveen Venkatesh and Chris Francis have worked on the device. A patent of the device has also been filed.

Francis said:

According to Francis, a Computer Science Engineering major, there a few available alternatives but they either have a high cost or can’t adjust to users’ pace.

Venkatesh whose major is Electrical Engineering said that to use Foodbuddy, users can command via Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant, or they can press a button. The device will start lowering down a spoon onto the plate, then tilts it and rotates the plate to scoop the food.

The spoon is then lifted to the user’s mouth so they can eat it. User can pause and resume the feeding. They can also independently rotate the dish.

Venkatesh also added: