Smart Medicine Dispenser

Team MedTech

MedTech comes from the minds of four Computer Science students who believe those who take daily medication should have access to an attentive way of reminding them to take their medicine. Their idea is a Smart Medicine Dispenser. 

Give us a brief overview of your project

We are creating a medicine dispenser for those reliant on medication to help them take it on time. We have set up a few systems such as sound and sensors to ensure the product gets their attention and reminds them about their medicine. As a byproduct of this device, we would like to also incorporate the user's phone so that an alert or notification goes off there. This would benefit users who may also have a carer – they could have this on their phone to also help remind their patients to take their medication.  

What made you want to develop this idea?

Some of us, and other people that we know have to take daily medication, so our project has quite a personal motivation behind it, and we understand that there is a genuine need for this product.  

A lot of people suffer from different things which require them to take medication. Their condition could also potentially make them forget about taking it – such as ADHD, for example. They might get so caught up in what they’re doing that they could forget about a crucial part of their health. Creating something to solve this using a sound alert, for example, could be a really simple thing that makes life so much easier for someone.  

Why is there a need for what you’re creating

We know that there are already medicine dispensers on the market; however, they are very inaccessible due to being over-expensive. They also do not offer what we do regarding the audible alert element.  

Can you explain about the kind of equipment you are using, and how you are creating the physical product?

We are using an Arduino board and using CAD to test it. The Arduino board allows us to control the servos to open and close where the pills are supposed to come out of – it forces it to open and close essentially. The sensor is to detect if the pills are there or not, and obviously, the speaker will be used to play out a sound. We would use an internet module to enable a message or an alert to be sent to a user's phone, but that would be a nice add-on in the future.  

Where do you envision the future of this project?

We’re hoping to win the prize this year at Innovation Festival, as it will allow us to kick-start our concept potentially. Generally, we want to help people. We believe our project is essential and could benefit so many people. 

Are you excited for innovation festival?

We’re pretty nervous but looking forward to it. We’d love to show off our hard work on this and compare it to what others have come up with. It will be interesting to see how other groups’ projects have come along and what their final outputs are; we are a little competitive.