Hey!
So we are finally coming down to the final stretch; the only thing that we have to do for our design project is practice the presentation, which we are going to do tonight at Van Pelt. Yesterday, after first being kicked out of multiple rooms in Van Pelt before finally moving to Hill, we edited and finalized our powerpoint, did some fancy thing to get all nine slides onto one slide, and discussed what additional material we were going to submit with our electronic copy of the presentation. We decided that we are going to submit some of our earlier designs which we did not include in our presentation because there was not enough room for it; we had numerous other designs that we considered and we want whoever is grading to know that we really had to narrow down what was realistic versus what was idealistic or impractical. Also, I had made a 3D diagram of one of our last designs; we took pictures of it and our going to submit them as well. Tonight, we are going to finish making the final 3D model for our presentation; we are going to photograph this as well and include it in our electronic submission. We are also going to submit a link to this blog because we feel it really describes our thought process as well as our different design ideas and component options. Hopefully tomorrow's presentation goes well! We feel that our design is very practical, realistic, and feasible; hopefully we can impress on our TA exactly how we feel about our design!
Wish us luck!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
GOZINTO Diagram
Hey!
Ok, so I finally finished making the GOZINTO diagram again (the first one was unable to be located on my computer after saving it). The diagram shows every component of our pill dispensing device; it also shows any sub-components. The diagram is a good tool to visualize everything that goes into a device. It definitely helped our group see exactly how each component contributed to the device as a whole. The hardest part about making the diagram, besides figuring out how it was going to all fit onto one powerpoint slide, was remembering everything that made up our device; for example, I almost forgot to put the battery and charger on the diagram! I feel like I overlooked these very vital components because I was only focusing on the pill storage and pill dispensing part of the device, which are the main reasons for the device but are completely useless without other components. Here is our diagram (this is not exactly the one being used in our presentation since we edited it further after I emailed it to my group, but it is roughly 98% the same):
Ok, so I finally finished making the GOZINTO diagram again (the first one was unable to be located on my computer after saving it). The diagram shows every component of our pill dispensing device; it also shows any sub-components. The diagram is a good tool to visualize everything that goes into a device. It definitely helped our group see exactly how each component contributed to the device as a whole. The hardest part about making the diagram, besides figuring out how it was going to all fit onto one powerpoint slide, was remembering everything that made up our device; for example, I almost forgot to put the battery and charger on the diagram! I feel like I overlooked these very vital components because I was only focusing on the pill storage and pill dispensing part of the device, which are the main reasons for the device but are completely useless without other components. Here is our diagram (this is not exactly the one being used in our presentation since we edited it further after I emailed it to my group, but it is roughly 98% the same):
Monday, December 7, 2009
Refill Latch Security!!
Hey!
So as I was putting the finishing touches on the GOZINTO diagram, I realized that my group and I overlooked a very small but important component: the latch security on the refill latch! This latch prevents the patient from gaining access to all of the pills, so it needs to be secured and only opened when a pharmacist need to refill the prescription. Again, this shows how minor details can be overlooked when designing something; these minor details can break a design no matter how strong the other design components are. So, to solve this minor but yet important problem, we discussed a security latch that will be operated via a sliding latch and motor; when access is granted via an override password inputted by a pharmacists, the motor will move the latch to the unlock position and the latch will open for the pharmacist.
So as I was putting the finishing touches on the GOZINTO diagram, I realized that my group and I overlooked a very small but important component: the latch security on the refill latch! This latch prevents the patient from gaining access to all of the pills, so it needs to be secured and only opened when a pharmacist need to refill the prescription. Again, this shows how minor details can be overlooked when designing something; these minor details can break a design no matter how strong the other design components are. So, to solve this minor but yet important problem, we discussed a security latch that will be operated via a sliding latch and motor; when access is granted via an override password inputted by a pharmacists, the motor will move the latch to the unlock position and the latch will open for the pharmacist.
Pill Release and Power Cord Storage
Hey!
Also during our meeting on Saturday, we finally decided on an internal pill release mechanism which dispenses the pill into the area where the patient can retrieve it. The pill release mechanism has really evolved over the past couple of weeks; it started out being the same type of release mechanism in a simple gum ball machine to one in which we make sure that our pills are not going to be crushed during the release. I will try to explain this mechanism in a very easy way. The release systems as 3 main parts: the pill holder, the height adjust, and the hold-release lever system (yes, we sort of coined this term for this particular component of the the pill release).
Pill holder: the pill holder is a U-shaped compartment where 1 pill constantly sits waiting to be release to the user.
Height adjust: the height adjust component of the pill release mechanism adjusts the height of the pill holder based on the pill size; if the pill is smaller, the height adjust raises the pill holder closer to the storage area of the pills. If the pill is larger, then the height adjust lowers the pill holder relative to the pill storage area. This ensures that only one pill is in the pill holder at one time; this ensure that only the programmed number of pills is dispensed by the device in order to prevent an overdose.
Hold-release lever system: when a pill is requested, the hold-release lever first cuts off the rest of the pills from being able to enter the pill holder and then allows the pill already in the pill holder to fall to the pill retrieve area to be retrieved by the patient. The hold level moves horizontally from right to left to cover the top part of the U-shaped pill holder; it also slightly vibrates up and down to create room between the remaining pills and the one sitting in the pill holder. The release level moves horizontally from left to right to, in a sense, cut off the bottom of the U-shaped pill holder; gravity will cause the pill in the holder to fall to pill retrieval area.
The entire pill release mechanism is going to be programmed using a small motor; it will receive its power from the build-in battery.
Power Cord Storage
On Thursday, Taylor brought up the idea that we should store the power / battery charging cord in the device; by storing the cord, the patient would not have to worry about leaving it somewhere while leaving the house or misplacing it. Since we had to increase the size of our device so that way up to 400 larger sized pills could be stored in the device at a time, we decided that we did have enough room for the cord storage. As I mentioned earlier, as we come down to these last modifications on our device, we are starting to make final adjustments to make it as realistic and practical possible and as simple to use for the patient as possible. We feel that making sure the power / charging cord does not leave the device will take unnecessary stress away from an already suffering patient; we want to design a device that will be of help to the patient, not add pressure and be a burden to him or her.
That is all for now! More to come soon!
Also during our meeting on Saturday, we finally decided on an internal pill release mechanism which dispenses the pill into the area where the patient can retrieve it. The pill release mechanism has really evolved over the past couple of weeks; it started out being the same type of release mechanism in a simple gum ball machine to one in which we make sure that our pills are not going to be crushed during the release. I will try to explain this mechanism in a very easy way. The release systems as 3 main parts: the pill holder, the height adjust, and the hold-release lever system (yes, we sort of coined this term for this particular component of the the pill release).
Pill holder: the pill holder is a U-shaped compartment where 1 pill constantly sits waiting to be release to the user.
Height adjust: the height adjust component of the pill release mechanism adjusts the height of the pill holder based on the pill size; if the pill is smaller, the height adjust raises the pill holder closer to the storage area of the pills. If the pill is larger, then the height adjust lowers the pill holder relative to the pill storage area. This ensures that only one pill is in the pill holder at one time; this ensure that only the programmed number of pills is dispensed by the device in order to prevent an overdose.
Hold-release lever system: when a pill is requested, the hold-release lever first cuts off the rest of the pills from being able to enter the pill holder and then allows the pill already in the pill holder to fall to the pill retrieve area to be retrieved by the patient. The hold level moves horizontally from right to left to cover the top part of the U-shaped pill holder; it also slightly vibrates up and down to create room between the remaining pills and the one sitting in the pill holder. The release level moves horizontally from left to right to, in a sense, cut off the bottom of the U-shaped pill holder; gravity will cause the pill in the holder to fall to pill retrieval area.
The entire pill release mechanism is going to be programmed using a small motor; it will receive its power from the build-in battery.
Power Cord Storage
On Thursday, Taylor brought up the idea that we should store the power / battery charging cord in the device; by storing the cord, the patient would not have to worry about leaving it somewhere while leaving the house or misplacing it. Since we had to increase the size of our device so that way up to 400 larger sized pills could be stored in the device at a time, we decided that we did have enough room for the cord storage. As I mentioned earlier, as we come down to these last modifications on our device, we are starting to make final adjustments to make it as realistic and practical possible and as simple to use for the patient as possible. We feel that making sure the power / charging cord does not leave the device will take unnecessary stress away from an already suffering patient; we want to design a device that will be of help to the patient, not add pressure and be a burden to him or her.
That is all for now! More to come soon!
Override Password
Hey!
So at our meeting on Saturday (the day that it also snowed for the first time this season!), we discussed how our fingerprint security system would be impractical for refilling the device; the same pharmacist would not always be refilling the prescription for the patient. For this reason, we decided to include an override password for our device; this password would only be known by the pharmacy who refills the patient's prescription and would be created by the pharmacy during the first time that the prescription is filled. We decided to include this change in our design to make more practical and realistic for use; we want to design a device that actually can be something real patients can use, not simply an idealistic design that only exists on paper.
As we continue to make final adjustments to our design and tweak the specifications, we are starting to see how little details can make or break a design. We are happy that we are being very realistic about the device (instead of idealistic) because that is the goal of this project; we want to design a device that actually can be manufactured and made to improve the lives of people.
So at our meeting on Saturday (the day that it also snowed for the first time this season!), we discussed how our fingerprint security system would be impractical for refilling the device; the same pharmacist would not always be refilling the prescription for the patient. For this reason, we decided to include an override password for our device; this password would only be known by the pharmacy who refills the patient's prescription and would be created by the pharmacy during the first time that the prescription is filled. We decided to include this change in our design to make more practical and realistic for use; we want to design a device that actually can be something real patients can use, not simply an idealistic design that only exists on paper.
As we continue to make final adjustments to our design and tweak the specifications, we are starting to see how little details can make or break a design. We are happy that we are being very realistic about the device (instead of idealistic) because that is the goal of this project; we want to design a device that actually can be manufactured and made to improve the lives of people.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Posted Designs
Below are our main designs that show the progression of our device. We have other designs that show just specific parts, or are without specifications, so we chose not to include them here.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Another Meeting
During our last meeting we discussed how to go on with the project and our game plan. Rebecca had talked to her dad and we decided that we would need to make our dispenser bigger. Jessica has been working on the gozinto diagram and so we figure we are going to work on the poster this weekend. We will discuss more in recitation tomorrow.
A Few Design Changes
As of last weekend, we thought we had finished our final drawing of our device. We labeled the components, decided on final dimensions, and even color-coded the drawing. But alas, after reflecting on the drawing, we decided there were two things we definitely needed to change: the size and the doctor-controlled portion. The goal of these changes is to make our device more realistic and usable.
In our initial design, we began the process of deciding dimensions by examining the size of a pill. We researched the average size of pain medication, found the volume of a pill, and multiplied this number by 200. (In this initial design, we figured that one dose would equal 200 pills). We used this number to formulate dimensions for the area of the device that holds pill. There are several problems with this method, we have discovered. First off, we cannot just assume that one dose equals one pill. Such an assumption would make our device highly unrealistic in the real world: what if the doctor prescribes the patient to take two pills per dose? Our device could not accommodate any dosage beyond one pill (if it needs to accommodate 200 total doses, as the directions of the project indicate). Therefore, we decided that our device should be expanded to hold 400 pills. We decided on the number 400 because most pain medications rarely require the patient to take more than two pills at a time. A second change we made to the dimensions revolves around the size of the individual pill. Our original dimensions used the average size of pain medication to determine dimensions. But what if the pill the patient needs to take is larger than average? Our device would no longer be applicable. Therefore, we decided that we should research the largest size of pain medication, and use that number to form the dimensions. Now our device can accommodate any type of pain medication, which makes it much more realistic. One negative to our new dimensions (the original dimensions were 13 cm by 8 cm by 5 cm, and our new dimensions are 17 cm by 11 cm by 9 cm) is that our device is much larger and bulkier. We tried to compensate for this by adding a small handle to the top of the device, in order to make the device easier to handle for patients.
The second change we made to our device deals with refilling. Initially, we had thought there would be a separate place for the doctor to be fingerprinted, and then he or she could add in as many pills as needed. There are several problems with this idea. First of all, a pharmacist would most likely be dealing with refills—not a doctor. Secondly, how does the pharmacist or doctor communicate to the device how many pills the patient may take? Without such programming, there is basically no purpose to our security and lock-out system. To fix these problems, we first decided to add a small keyboard to the back of our device. The keyboard would allow the pharmacist to input how many doses a patient can take. That way, the device knows when it needs to lock the patient out. However, now we have decided that a separate keyboard does not need to be added. Instead, when someone needs to use the device (either the patient or the pharmacist), a screen will appear (on our touch screen area) asking with the user wants to request a pill or a refill. Depending on which action is chosen, the device will recognize one of two fingerprints. If the “request a pill” function is picked, the device will recognize only the patient’s fingerprint. Similarly, if the “request a refill” button is picked, the device will only recognize the pharmacist’s fingerprint. This could potentially be problematic, because the patient would need to see the same pharmacist every time he or she needs a refill in order for this idea to work. We may need to formulate a better plan. But either way, we now know that we will be dealing with a pharmacist now instead of a doctor, and we know we need a way to program the amount of doses the patients needs.
One other small change we made was to lower the age limit on our device. Initially, we decided that our device should be limited to those ages 14 and over, but there is really no reason to exclude those younger. The beauty of our device is that it is impossible to overdose. Therefore, we decided to lower the age limit to 8.
I just made the final design with all the new specifications. As of now, we believe this will be our final design, but more ideas keep seeming to sneak up on us, so perhaps we will make a few more changes in the next few days.
In our initial design, we began the process of deciding dimensions by examining the size of a pill. We researched the average size of pain medication, found the volume of a pill, and multiplied this number by 200. (In this initial design, we figured that one dose would equal 200 pills). We used this number to formulate dimensions for the area of the device that holds pill. There are several problems with this method, we have discovered. First off, we cannot just assume that one dose equals one pill. Such an assumption would make our device highly unrealistic in the real world: what if the doctor prescribes the patient to take two pills per dose? Our device could not accommodate any dosage beyond one pill (if it needs to accommodate 200 total doses, as the directions of the project indicate). Therefore, we decided that our device should be expanded to hold 400 pills. We decided on the number 400 because most pain medications rarely require the patient to take more than two pills at a time. A second change we made to the dimensions revolves around the size of the individual pill. Our original dimensions used the average size of pain medication to determine dimensions. But what if the pill the patient needs to take is larger than average? Our device would no longer be applicable. Therefore, we decided that we should research the largest size of pain medication, and use that number to form the dimensions. Now our device can accommodate any type of pain medication, which makes it much more realistic. One negative to our new dimensions (the original dimensions were 13 cm by 8 cm by 5 cm, and our new dimensions are 17 cm by 11 cm by 9 cm) is that our device is much larger and bulkier. We tried to compensate for this by adding a small handle to the top of the device, in order to make the device easier to handle for patients.
The second change we made to our device deals with refilling. Initially, we had thought there would be a separate place for the doctor to be fingerprinted, and then he or she could add in as many pills as needed. There are several problems with this idea. First of all, a pharmacist would most likely be dealing with refills—not a doctor. Secondly, how does the pharmacist or doctor communicate to the device how many pills the patient may take? Without such programming, there is basically no purpose to our security and lock-out system. To fix these problems, we first decided to add a small keyboard to the back of our device. The keyboard would allow the pharmacist to input how many doses a patient can take. That way, the device knows when it needs to lock the patient out. However, now we have decided that a separate keyboard does not need to be added. Instead, when someone needs to use the device (either the patient or the pharmacist), a screen will appear (on our touch screen area) asking with the user wants to request a pill or a refill. Depending on which action is chosen, the device will recognize one of two fingerprints. If the “request a pill” function is picked, the device will recognize only the patient’s fingerprint. Similarly, if the “request a refill” button is picked, the device will only recognize the pharmacist’s fingerprint. This could potentially be problematic, because the patient would need to see the same pharmacist every time he or she needs a refill in order for this idea to work. We may need to formulate a better plan. But either way, we now know that we will be dealing with a pharmacist now instead of a doctor, and we know we need a way to program the amount of doses the patients needs.
One other small change we made was to lower the age limit on our device. Initially, we decided that our device should be limited to those ages 14 and over, but there is really no reason to exclude those younger. The beauty of our device is that it is impossible to overdose. Therefore, we decided to lower the age limit to 8.
I just made the final design with all the new specifications. As of now, we believe this will be our final design, but more ideas keep seeming to sneak up on us, so perhaps we will make a few more changes in the next few days.
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