Inspiration
Taking medication or supplements is a necessary and vital aspect of life, but it can be tedious to count and sort out each type of medication on a weekly or even daily basis. The idea behind pill-e originally stemmed from the fact that many of our peers needed to make frequent visits to their elderly relatives' places to sort out their medication for the upcoming week. Residents at senior homes and hospitals may also require additional support with taking medication, especially for those who experience Alzheimer's or other types of dementia, decreasing the time that nurses and caretakers have to manage other issues.
We wanted to design a user-friendly solution that allows the medication-taker more independence and freedom to manage their weekly dosages, leaving more time for both them and any potential caretakers to focus on other aspects of life!
What it does
Paired with an app interface, pill-e can be set up in just a few button clicks, where the user can indicate which pills should be taken on which days and times. The output of the pills is controlled using customized pill filtering containers powered by continuous servo motors and an LED-photoresistor setup.
A camera with a view of the tray of dispensed pills is integrated into pill-e for the purpose of connecting with the app, providing an option for caretakers to keep an eye on the status of the medication ingestion if they so choose. The screen at the top of pill-e features an animated smiley face, providing a friendly element to the user experience.
How we built it
All mechanical components were designed and iterated upon using Solidworks, and produced via rapid prototyping. These were integrated with a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino, a breadboard, photoresistor, LED, display screen, servo motors, and a camera to provide the functionalities of pill-e mentioned above. The app was developed and integrated with the hardware components of pill-e via Python and HTML/CSS, specifically Flask and Bootstrap. We stored the user's requirements for the pill dispenser in the app to use along side the mechanical components.
Challenges we ran into
Getting the camera to work, getting the display to work, developing a reliable method of outputting only one pill at a time, getting the app to connect to the hardware, saving data from the form... getting everything to work basically :)
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Getting the pill filtering, camera, display, app aesthetic, and all the other hardware to work! Storing the user's form response through refreshes!
What we learned
How to use Flask and Python to integrate an app with hardware, and how to program various hardware components.
What's next for pill-e
Developing more slots for pill sorting containers, and introducing swappable containers for different pill shapes and sizes. Reduce the product size and refine the physical design. Fully integrate the app with the hardware. As well, finding an amplifier or op-amps so we actually have enough output to produce audio reminders. Furthermore, making the app more dynamic to accommodate for more pills.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.