Second Design Meeting

Hey!
So we had our second design meeting during recitation on Thursday; during this time, we were to finalize our design specifications which included who our intended users are going to be, what are the dimensions of our device, and what features our device was going to have. I think the hardest part for our team was figuring the dimensions of our design; we were not sure how big or small it was going to be because we kept thinking of different variables, such as the pill size or shape, which were impacting our theoretical dimensions. After some debate and calculating the volume of 200 pills of a sample pain medication, we finally narrowed down our dimensions for our design. We hope these are the final dimensions for our design, but, in order to make sure, I am going to make a simple 3D model of the device; we are doing this so we can visually see the dimensions and decide from there if there is enough room for the pills, the hardware, the battery, and the other components of our device.

We also decided that are intended users are people over the age of 14; children under the age of 14 should use the device on a case-by-case basis under the supervision and advice of the child's doctor. We got this idea from all of the products that say something along the lines of "under 6 years old, ask a doctor" for items such as medicine or toothpaste. We are making sure to design our device so that any person can operate it without any difficulties; we are going to make the device have a touchscreen with simple programming so that even people unfamiliar with the newest technology can still get their pain medication when needed without frustration.

In our specifications, we also made sure to ensure a security system to that only those intended to refill the device or get a pill from the device are able to get it. We are going to use fingerprint identification as the security "password;" this technology is already being used in wide variety of devices including laptops, which is from where we got our idea. With this, we are going to have different levels of security. For example, the user can only get a pill, but cannot open the device to refill it, change the amount of doses, or alter any doctor-programmed instructions. Another level of security will be the clinician level; this level allows the clinician to refill the device but cannot change dose information. The doctor or administrator level can change dose information, refill the device, and change any other settings on the device that deal with the dose of medication.

My group is meeting again on Tuesday after lecture (and also before Thanksgiving break). For the meeting, I am going to bring the 3D model of the device. We are also going to double check our specifications and make sure we are all on the same page before we leave for break; we want to make sure everyone knows what the final device so that way when we come back from break we can jump start into the other aspects of the project.

More to come soon!