Communications: electrical – Systems – Timer control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-26
2001-02-27
Tong, Nina (Department: 2736)
Communications: electrical
Systems
Timer control
C340S573100, C221S002000, C221S003000, C206S531000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06194995
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an automatic dispenser, and more particularly, to a medicine dispenser such as for medicine, namely pills, which provides audible alerts throughout the day to persons who require medicine in a timely fashion.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
When required, persons take medication (in the form of capsules, pills or the like) on a set schedule over some period of time. In some cases, the schedule and time of ingesting medication is given by a doctor or pharmacist, whereas in other situations, the schedule and time of ingestion is dictated by the medication's directions. These types of persons may include persons who are chronically ill (who require medication to alleviate or assist in the recovery of the illness), women on birth control pills and other persons who require dietary, supplemental or hormonal therapy.
Initially, most people purchase medication which comes in a single compartment pill container (such as those provided in a pharmacy). Such pill containers, however, do not provide for orderly dispensing of the medication, and further, do not alert the user to take the medication in a timely, scheduled manner. Other pill containers are formed of a rectangular shaped box with individual compartments for the days of the week. Generally, these types of containers are elongated structures having a plurality of compartments, or boxes, that open up for receiving and storage of pills. Each compartment is labeled with each day of the week. However, these types of boxes do not remind the person requiring medication to physically ingest the medicine, but rather, only shows the person which days of the week they forgot to take the medicine.
To resolve this problem, several devices exist on the market today which alert a user to take medication. Some of these devices typically employ a programmable alarm which is connected to a medicinal container. Typical of such devices include disclosures in U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,091 to Daneshvar, U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,952 to Bowden and U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,422 to Springer. Some devices, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,912 to Cousin, require the user to program the alarms based on a complex programming routine.
Moreover, devices, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,921,806, 3,261,455 and 2,953,242 disclose medication dispensing units which have a large surface area. Such devices employ complex parts with elaborate designs to move pills into a pill dispensing area, which increases the likelihood that the medication will be broken or damaged. These types of units are believed to be difficult to store, difficult to access and overall, increases the complexity of a product which should not require complex tasks for the problem solved.
There are also devices which teach an alarm for the sole purpose of reminding a user to take the medicine. Typical of such disclosures include U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,021 to Perrone. These devices, however, are not connected to a medicinal container, and as such, merely serve as conventional alarm units. In all, most of these devices are believed costly, or at the very least, technically complicated to manufacture and/or use in operation. In this regard, persons who require medication on a timed interval may not be in a position to purchase costly reminder systems or be prepared to program or use complicated reminder systems.
As such, an article dispenser is desirable which is economical to make and easy to program by known, conventional standards, with fewer piece parts, less complexity and at a lower cost. Further, it is desirable that such an article dispenser be connected directly to a conventional programmable alarm unit (such as a low-cost alarm clock device found at local retail stores) for cost-efficiency, ease of use and convenience. In this manner, it is desirable that the existing electrical circuitry, which is already built in to the conventional alarm unit, control the alarm notification and dispensing of the articles from the article container, thereby eliminating the expense of a newly designed alarm unit, and also control the alarm notification to the patient. It is also desirable that the article dispenser be accessible to all types of persons, including children, the elderly, persons who are visually or hearing impaired, persons with failing memory and persons with other handicaps. Finally, it may be desirable to have an article dispenser capable of not only dispensing medicine, but other articles such as candy, gum or like small items.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a single article dispenser, and more particularly to a medicinal dispenser controlled by electrical circuitry on an attached conventional alarm reminder device (such as an alarm clock). The present invention includes a means for dispensing medicine attached to an alarm reminder device (such as an alarm clock). The present invention utilizes the alarm circuitry of an alarm clock, which controls the engagement of the alarm on the alarm reminder device, to also control the operation of the means for dispensing medicine. The alarm circuitry preferably allows a patient to set the alarm reminder device to produce an alarm signal times at least once during each 24 hour period. Preferably, the alarm reminder device is commercially available and low cost. At a minimum, the alarm reminder device must have a three-way alarm switch for use with the present invention.
The present invention is highly useful for those persons who do not take their medicine as prescribed by medical professionals or as directed on the medicine's container. The present invention is intended to provide an apparatus which is simple to use and manually operated by the user.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2953242 (1960-09-01), Shaw
patent: 3261455 (1966-07-01), Gayle et al.
patent: 3651984 (1972-03-01), Redenbach
patent: 3722739 (1973-03-01), Blumberg
patent: 3815780 (1974-06-01), Bauer
patent: 3921806 (1975-11-01), Wawracz
patent: 4361408 (1982-11-01), Wirtschafter
patent: 4573606 (1986-03-01), Lewis et al.
patent: 4942544 (1990-07-01), McIntosh et al.
patent: 5044516 (1991-09-01), Hoar
patent: 5152422 (1992-10-01), Springer
patent: 5246136 (1993-09-01), Loidl
patent: 5291191 (1994-03-01), Moore
patent: 5323929 (1994-06-01), Marlar
patent: 5392952 (1995-02-01), Bowden
patent: 5495961 (1996-03-01), Maestre
patent: 5641091 (1997-06-01), Daneshvar
patent: 5646912 (1997-07-01), Cousin
patent: 5669503 (1997-09-01), Robin
patent: 5724021 (1998-03-01), Perrone
patent: 5850937 (1998-12-01), Rauche
Digital Alarm Clock Overview, Item No. 34908, excerpt from Specification Catalog; Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Semiconductor Business Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan.
Tong Nina
Wildenstein, Esq. Kevin Lynn
LandOfFree
Article dispenser does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Article dispenser, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Article dispenser will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2583048