Abstract:
Over 125,000 Americans die every year from not taking medications as directed. This includes forgetting to take the medication, consuming the incorrect amount, and consuming it in the wrong manner. As people grow older, they tend to lose their memory and forget small details. Pills, which have been steadily growing in the medical field are meant to save their lives, yet elderly people are not able to take them due to memory loss and the struggle to take the exact amount of pills in the correct manner. Our product, the Pill Dispenser, will solve the problem of forgetting to take the correct amount of pills at the correct time. The Pill Dispenser has the functionality of being able to dispense the amount of pills specified by the user and notify the user via text message to ensure that the user takes his or her pills. 70% of elderly people have cellphones, allowing the text message system to be an efficient method. The pill dispenser will be a fully automated robot which will work and control itself the entire time once the user puts his/her medication inside the robot. Although there are many models that are on the market today, they are all incredibly costly, typically above $500. We as a group will make that value less than $100. By implementing few motors and a breakthrough design to capture only one pill, this dispenser is the most economical and effective device to date. Our ultimate mission is to save many lives - lives that have been lost simply due to the elderly forgetting to take their medication.