Patent ID: 7510099
Filing Date: 2009-03-31
Classification: A61J,G07F

Abstract:
1. A cassette for storing and dispensing pills, the cassette comprising: an enclosure having a removable lid adapted to allow the introduction of the pills into the enclosure; a cassette vane top ring situated at a bottom section of the enclosure such that gravity urges the pills through a central opening in the cassette vane top ring and into pill vanes, the pill vanes disposed in a top surface of a dome-shaped cassette vane; a cassette vane bottom finish below the cassette vane, the cassette vane bottom finish having a plurality of pill indexes, each of the pill indexes sized to accept one pill of the pills; a pill vane plate beneath the cassette vane bottom finish adapted to support the pills within the pill indexes, preventing the pills within the pill indexes from falling until one of the pills within the pill indexes pass over a pill drop opening in the pill vane plate; a partition between the cassette vane bottom finish and the pill vane plate, covering the pill drop opening and preventing the pills from falling from the pill vanes into the pill drop opening; and a gear system coupling a drive wheel to the cassette vane bottom finish and the cassette vane, the gear system adapted to rotate the cassette vane bottom finish and the cassette vane in a rotate/pause movement in response to a continuous rotation of the drive wheel.