BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to devices for selectively dispensing medicines, particularly to devices that arrange combinations of pills in a predetermined order and allow them to be dispensed by physically or mentally infirm persons with minimal difficulty at appropriate times.

It is often the case that persons with great physical or mental infirmities, such as congenital deformities, upper extremity amputations, arthritis, or borderline mental functioning, have a need to take one or more medications several times a day each day of the week. The medications are typically oral medications taken in the form of a pill. Because of such physical infirmities, it is frequently difficult for such persons to manipulate medicine containers to extract the pills, to understand consistently which pills are to be taken in what combination and when they are to be taken, or even to remember to take the pills at all.

While a variety of different pill dispensers have previously been devised, none satisfactorily meets the needs of the physically or mentally infirm. For example, Majka U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,247 discloses a pill dispenser having pill containers arranged in a matrix, each container corresponding to a day of the month, but the pills are dispensed from multiple containers by a single mechanism actuated by rotating a key placed in a slot, which is a relatively complicated and difficult system for a physically infirm person to use.

Another approach to dispensing medication is

represented by Barham British Patent No. 2,205,306 and Behl U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,884, which disclose electrically operated automatic medication dispensers, but are very complex technically, and intimidating and difficult to use by the physically infirm. A somewhat related device is discloned in Simon U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,991, which shows a device for storing an signaling the time for taking drugs.

McLaughlin U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,042; Fites U.S. Pat. No. 3,587,517; and Will U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,819 all disclose pill dispensers that arrange the pills in a matrix of containers, but do little to facilitate identification of which pills to take when or extraction of the pills from the containers in a way that would be convenient for the physically infirm.

Another approach to organizing pills in a matrix is represented by Katz U.S. Pat. No. 3,278,010, which employs individual dispensing elements and respective troughs. In this case the pills must be dispensed by twisting the dispensing elements, which would ordinarily be a difficult task for the physically infirm, and the pills are all dispensed at different locations

However, it can be seen that there is a need for a pill dispensing device that not only organizes pills in an orderly and understandable way so that they can be dispensed at the appropriate time, but that is straightforward and easy for the physically or mentally infirm to operate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes many of the drawbacks of prior art pill dispensers and facilitates the timely dispensation of medication to the mentally and physically infirm. It does so by providing a matrix of pill containers, arranged in rows and columns so that the rows represent times of day and the columns represent days of the week, and a simple means of releasing the contents of those containers, i.e., pills, so as to arrive at a single outlet. The containers are preferably in the form of troughs mounted by hinges to a support and held in a storage position by a coil spring. The troughs are disposed over a tray included in the support for catching the pills when the troughs are emptied and guiding the pills to a single outlet at the bottom of the support. For each trough there is a push button that, when actuated, acts against the trough spring to swing the trough back and thereby empty its contents into the tray.

A cover holds the push buttons, which are themselves springloaded so as to return to an unactuated position. Preferably the tray is mounted on the support by a hinge along the side. Markings are provided for indicating the day, and time of day. The push buttons may be illuminated, for example, by small incandescent lamps or light emitting diodes, which illumination may be controlled by a timer so as to signal when medication is to be taken, and an audio signal indicating when medications are to be taken may also be provided to implement these features, a clock may be provided to indicate the times of day and to control these features.

Therefore, it is a principal objective of the present invention to provide a novel and improved pill dispenser.

It is a another objective of the present invention to provide such a pill dispenser that is especially easy for the physically or mentally infirm to use.

It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a pill dispenser that clearly indicates when predetermined sets of pills ar to be taken.

It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a pill dispenser that organizes the pills in a predetermined order so that the sequence in which they are to be taken is readily determinable.

It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a pill dispenser that permits pills to be easily loaded into the dispenser when it is in a horizontal orientation, yet provides for vertical mounting on a wall or stand.

The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a front view of a pill dispenser according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a side view of the pill dispenser of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows a front view of the pill dispenser of FIG. 1 with the front cover open.

FIG. 4 shows a cross-section of the pill dispenser of FIG. 1 taken along line A--A of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 shows a front view of an alternative embodiment a pill dispenser according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, a pill dispenser 10 according to the present invention preferably comprises a box 12 having a plurality of push buttons 14 arranged in a matrix by columns 16, corresponding to days, and rows 18, corresponding to times of the day, each push button being actuable to release one or more pills to be taken at the time on the day corresponding to that particular push button. The box is preferably constructed so as to be mounted vertically on a wall or stand so that when a push button is pressed the pills fall by gravity to a single outlet 20 and out that outlet into the user's hand.

Each push button would preferably be marked by one or more letters, e.g., Su, M, T, W, Th, F, and Sa, to indicate the day, as shown in FIG. 1. Similarly, each row 18 would have a corresponding indication as to the time of day which the push buttons in that row should be actuated, as shown at 24. Of course, the symbols could indicate other times and events, such as weeks of the month and days of the week, depending upon the schedule for the medication, and the symbols would preferably be changeable, as by removable stickers.

As shown in FIG. 2, the box preferably has a back portion 26 which holds the pills and provides the outlet 20 and a front cover 28 which is preferably attached to the back portion 26 by a hinge 30, though other attachment means might also be employed without departing from the principles of the invention. The push buttons 14 are preferably provided with coil springs 32, which tend to maintain the push buttons in an unactuated position. Although spring release of the pills may also be provided inside the back portion 26, the springs 32 on the push buttons tend to keep them from moving around loosely so as to cause noise or interfere with loading pills into the box. The front cover 28 is swung open on hinge 30 to load the box with pills, as will become more clear from the description hereafter. Preferably when the box is loaded it is placed with its backside 34 horizontal on a surface, such as a table, with the front side 36 facing upwardly.

Turning now to FIG. 3, when the cover 28 is swung open, it reveals a plurality of containers 38 arranged in a matrix corresponding to each of the push buttons, each container having an opening toward the front of the box 12, that is, a port 15, for receiving pills 14. These containers, or troughs, are preferably mounted at the top by respective hinges 40 which are loaded by springs 42 so as to maintain the containers in a forward position (or an upward position when the box is on its backside), except when actuated by a corresponding push button. Each container is preferably large enough to hold a plurality of pills. When the corresponding push button is actuated, a container is pushed backward so as to rotate about its hinge and spill its contents into a tray 44. When the box is mounted vertically, the pills fall by gravity to the bottom of the tray which, by virtue of partitions 46, guides the pills to outlet 20. Thence, the back portion 26 acts as a support for the troughs and tray of the device.

Preferably, labels indicating the respective day and time of day are mounted on the inside of the box, as shown at 48 and 50, as well as on the outside.

Operation of the device can be better understood by reference to FIG. 4, which shows a cross-sectional view of the box with the cover closed. The trough 38 corresponding to the push button at location 52 is in its normal, storage position. It can be seen that the trough is held in place by a ramp 54, which forms the bottom of the container, a hinge 40, and a coil spring 42. Several exemplary pills 56 are shown stored in the trough 38. A tab 58 on the trough rests against the inside of the push button 14 located at position 52.

In contrast, the push button located at position 60, just below position 52, has been actuated, i.e., someone has pressed it, thereby moving it inwardly. The push button includes a shaft 62 on the end of which is a disk 64 which presses against the tab 58, thereby pushing the container 38 inwardly and causing it to rotate about hinge 40 against coil spring 42. When that happens, the pills 66 fall out of the container under the force of gravity and are guided by the tray to the outlet 20, not shown in FIG. 4. Once the push button is released, the container 38 returns to its normal position.

It can be seen that, when the box is placed on its backside and the cover is open, each trough 38, together with the corresponding ramp 54 of the next lower trough, provides a receptacle for pills, which are easily loaded into the box. Then, when the cover is closed, the box may be placed in its vertical position and pills are dispensed in a simple fashion by simply pressing the push button for the correct day and time. It is to be understood that the box may be mounted in a vertical orientation by attaching it to a wall or mounting it on a stand of any convenient type as would be readily understood by a person skilled in the art.

Turning now to FIG. 5, a number of alternative features are shown. First, the dispenser may be provided with a timer, of a variety of commonly known types such as a digital electronic clock, which may also include a clock display 68, such as the commonly known liquid crystal display devices used with wrist watches and other clocks. The timer, or clock, can be employed to actuate an audio transducer 70 to signal the user that it is time to take medication. Similarly, push buttons 72 may be illuminated selectively by the timer so that the push button corresponding to a particular set of pills to be taken is illuminated, while others are not. And, the time of day when the pills are is to be taken may be displayed by fixed labels, as previously described, or by labels that are actually programmable and electronically displayed, as at 74.

The terms and expressions which have been employed in the foregoing specification are used therein as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, it being recognized that the scope of the invention is defined and limited only by the claims which follow.