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!