In this paper, we describe the development of electric powered wheelchairs for persons with severe disability unable to drive currently commercialized wheelchairs. One of the important approaches of this development involves closing the gap between persons with severe disability and advanced technologies; e.g. via voice recognition, image recognition, EMG detection, stereo vision technologies. Each of the advanced technologies was incorporated into the human interface and security system of the electric powered wheelchairs and all were evaluated by actual users in the real world during use. In order to ensure the successful development of orphan products, it emerged that user participation is important.