Patent Publication Number: US-2009223994-A1

Title: Thumb/Fingerprint Activated Pill Dispenser

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to a pill dispenser, and more particularly, to a pill dispenser incorporating locking means for preventing the dispensing of a pill there from until the locking means is released. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     A tablet is a mixture of active substances and recipients, usually in powder form, pressed or compacted into a solid. The excipients include binders, glidants and lubricants to ensure efficient tabletting; disintegrants to ensure that the tablet breaks up in the digestive tract; sweeteners or flavors to mask the taste of bad-tasting active ingredients; and pigments to make uncoated tablets visually attractive. A coating may be applied to hide the taste of the tablet&#39;s components, to make the tablet smoother and easier to swallow, and to make it more resistant to the environment, as a result, extending its shelf life. 
     Medicines to be taken orally are often supplied in tablet form. Medicinal tablets and capsules are often called pills. Other products that are manufactured in the form of tablets, and designed to dissolve or disintegrate, include cleaning and deodorizing products. 
     Medicinal tablets are usually intended to be swallowed, and, as a result, are a suitable size and shape. Tablets for other purposes, such as effervescent medicinal tablets and non-medicinal tablets, may be larger. 
     Medicinal tablets were originally made in the shape of a disk of whatever color their components determined, but are now made in many shapes and colors to help users to distinguish between different medicines they take. Tablets are often stamped with symbols, letters, and numbers, which enable them to be identified. Sizes of tablets made to be swallowed, range from a few millimeters to about a centimeter. Some tablets are in the shape of capsules, and are thus called “caplets”. 
     When Tylenol® capsules were laced with cyanide, many people stopped buying capsules because they are easy to contaminate. They instead bought tablets, which are not. Some makers of over-the-counter drugs responded by making “caplets”, which are tablets made in the shape of a capsule. Tablets are often scored to allow them to be easily broken into equal halves for smaller doses. Some people have difficulty swallowing tablets, this is called dysphagia. This is often caused by a gag reflex. 
     The usage of medication in the form of pills to regain and maintain physical and mental health, and the selection, application, and potency of prescription medications, has increased with the advancement of medical science. Likewise, self-taking of prescribed medications by individuals has also increased over the years. This is especially true in instances when medication can be taken in the home to combat diseases or conditions, which, in the past required/allowed user to be hospitalized. With the decrease in the amount of time patients are required to be hospitalized, the self-administration of complex medication without proper supervision has drastically increased. Unfortunately, the adverse effect to a patient who has either improperly taken the correct dosage of medication or who has overdosed on the medication has also increased. 
     Cases are well documented in every community of medication overdose, misuse, and abuse. These unfortunate actions can lead to various adverse effects on the user&#39;s life, as well as those associated with the user, including health risks, personal and social upheaval, reaction, addiction, deceit, fraud and loss of a normal functioning life, such as maintaining a job, caring for family and other basic responsibilities. Non-compliance with self-administered medication schedules is a costly health care problem, which results in increased hospital visits and stays. While a high percentage of those who misuse medications would qualify as high risk, i.e., those with former or current substance abuse or substance addiction issues, those not considered high risk can succumb to the same problems innocently, as they are prescribed use of a highly addictive substance, narcotic, or equivalent prescription, to deal with pain, sleep related problems, depression or other heath issues. 
     Such risk of addiction concerns prescribing doctors, pharmacists and manufacturers because the risk of misuse and addiction may be more harmful than the condition being addressed. Doctors may under-prescribe to the patient out of such concerns, lessoning the positive effects and attributes that the prescribed medication could provide if taken properly. Free access to a bottle of highly potent, addictive, habit forming medication, can put the physician and the user in an uncomfortable, possibly compromising situation. 
     The importance of avoiding complications by employing preventive procedures such as the use of intelligent pill dispensers for home use has increased. Present pill devices, however are not well suited for such demanding applications. 
     In the past these problems were addressed by designing more functions into the device, increasing complexity and cost. Generally, prior home dispensing systems typically are large in size, not readily portable, and do not provide a relative cost effective and easy mechanism to dispense medication. Filling and refilling may require in-home assistance. Transfer and loading of medications by home caregivers rather than a pharmacist introduces the possibility of medication identification errors. By design many of these devices were intended to be provided and supervised by trained caregivers and require monitoring and maintenance. Some of the complexities and functions of these devices include multiple doses in a single compartment, user or caregiver loading of dose compartments, computer programming, computer interfacing, multiple alarm sets, multiple timer set functions, event recording and monitoring, remote monitoring, and audio and visual alarms. These capabilities are labor intensive, timely, and costly. 
     In contrast, simplified devices provide help in maintaining dose schedules but generally lack adequate overdose protection features. Therefore, there is a need for a method, process, and system that allows user access to the medication only at prescribed intervals anywhere the user is situated, yet simple and small enough to maintain inexpensive manufacturing costs. Beneficially, such an apparatus, and system would provide drug manufacturers, prescribing physicians and pharmacies with a level of confidence that the intended use of the medication will be complied with and would provide the user with a compact dispenser that ensures a certain level of protection from possible misuse, dependence or addiction. 
     The problem of restricting the access of infants to medicine bottles is well known. In response to a developing problem of accidental poisonings of infants by household prescription drugs resulted in the substantially universal use of child-proof closures designed to frustrate opening of the container by infants and small children. Commonly utilized designs of such child-proof closures include caps that are required to be aligned in a specific rotational orientation to permit opening, caps that require downward pressure on the top of the cap to engage an inner cap for the necessary unscrewing rotations, or to release the cap from a locking device. While many of these known child-proof closure designs are reasonably effective for their primary intended purposes, an unwanted side effect has been to make the medicine containers difficult for many adults to open, particularly the elderly, persons with poor eyesight or physical problems with their hands, for example. A result of this is that, in many households, adults who have difficulty opening “child-proof” containers, may tend to simply remove the caps and leave the bottle open, totally defeating the purpose of providing the child-proof closure in the first place. The problem currently is recognized as becoming increasingly serious because of a demographic trend for grandparents and grandchildren to be living in the same households. 
     In the tablet-pressing process, it is important that all ingredients be fairly dry, powdered or granular, somewhat uniform in particle size, and freely flowing. Mixed particle sized powders can segregate due to operational vibrations, which can result in tablets with poor drug or active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) content uniformity. Content uniformity ensures that the same API dose is delivered with each tablet. 
     Some APIs may be tabulated as pure substances, but this is rarely the case; most formulations include excipients. Normally, an inactive ingredient (excipient) termed a binder, is added to help hold the tablet together and give it strength. A wide variety of binders may be used, some common ones including lactose powder, dibasic calcium phosphate, sucrose, corn starch, microcrystalline cellulose, and modified cellulose. 
     Often, an ingredient is also needed to act as a disintegrant that hydrates readily in water to aid tablet dispersion once swallowed, releasing the API for absorption. Some binders, such as starch and cellulose, are also excellent disintegrants. Small amounts of lubricants are usually added, as well. The most common of these is magnesium stearate; however, other commonly used tablet lubricants include stearic acid, hydrogenated oil, and sodium stearyl fumarate. These help the tablets, once pressed, to be more easily ejected from the die. 
     Many tablets today are coated after being pressed. Although sugar-coating was popular in the past, the process has many drawbacks. Modem tablet coatings are polymer and polysaccharide based, with plasticizers and pigments included. Tablet coatings must be stable and strong enough to survive the handling of the tablet, must not make tablets stick together during the coating process, and must follow the fine contours of embossed characters, or logos on tablets. 
     Coatings can also facilitate printing on tablets, if required. Coatings are necessary for tablets that have an unpleasant taste, and a smoother finish makes large tablets easier to swallow. Tablet coatings are also useful to extend the shelf-life of components that are sensitive to moisture or oxidation. Opaque materials like titanium dioxide can protect light-sensitive actives from photodegradation. Special coatings can also enhance brand recognition. 
     If the active ingredient of a tablet is sensitive to acid, or is an irritant to the stomach lining, an enteric coating can be used, which is resistant to stomach acid and dissolves in the high pH of the intestines. Enteric coatings are also used for medicines that can be negatively affected by taking a long time to reach the small intestine where they are absorbed. Coatings are often chosen to control the rate of dissolution of the drug in the gastrointestinal tract. 
     Some drugs will be absorbed better at different points in the digestive system. If the highest percentage of absorption of a drug takes place in the stomach, a coating that dissolves quickly and easily in acid will be selected. If the rate of absorption is best in the large intestine or colon, a coating that is acid resistant and dissolves slowly would be used to ensure it reached that point before dispersing. The area of the gastro-intestinal tract with the best absorption for any particular drug is usually determined by clinical trials. 
     Tablet presses, also called tabletting machines, range from small, inexpensive bench-top models that make one tablet at a time, to large, computerized, industrial models that can make hundreds of thousands to millions of tablets an hour with much greater pressure. Some tablet presses can make extremely large tablets, such as some of the toilet cleaning and deodorizing products, or dishwasher soap. 
     Others can make smaller tablets, from regular aspirin, to some the size of a BB gun pellet. Tablet presses may also be used to form tablets out of a wide variety of materials, from powdered metals to cookie crumbs. The tablet press is an essential piece of machinery for any pharmaceutical and nutraceutical manufacturer. 
     It is sometimes necessary to split tablets into halves or quarters. Tablets are easier to break accurately if scored, but there are devices called pill-splitters which cut unscored and scored tablets. Tablets with special coatings should not be broken before use, as this will expose the tablet core to the digestive juices, short-circuiting the intended delayed-release effect. There is a need for a means to prevent the stealing, selling, and abuse of pills by popping out one pill at a time out of a dispenser. 
     A problem with many previous pill dispensers is that children can gain access to the pills contained therein. An unsupervised child might consume pills which would be detrimental to his or her health. Other pill and tablet dispensers in the past have incorporated child-resistant features to make it more difficult for a child to open the container. However, these child-resistant features often make access too difficult for the intended user. It is a further object of this invention to provide a child-resistant locking mechanism for pill and tablet dispensers, which would provide ready access for adults. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     These, and other objects, are achieved by a pill container/dispenser which comprises: a body adapted to store pills therein; a cap covering the body when in use to prevent pills from being dispensed from the body; a locking mechanism locking the cap to the body in a covering position when activated; and a control system in the cap which includes print reading circuitry which reads a print of a finger or thumb of a person attempting to move the cap out of the covering position, the control system being connected to the locking mechanism and deactivating the locking mechanism when the person attempting to move the cap out of the covering position is an authorized user. If the fingerprint is not recognized, the cap will remain locked in position so that no dispensing will occur. Furthermore, if the computer chip recognizes tampering, such as a continued effort to remove the cap by a non-authorized user, a chemical spray is sprayed from the cap into the container. The spray will dilute or destroy the potency of the pills remaining in the container. 
     Using the device of the present invention will prevent the selling of pills in bulk amounts, there would likely be no mistaking another pill for the one that is supposed to be taken, and if someone has suicidal thoughts by taking pills, they may be deterred by the features of the container embodying the principles of the present invention. 
     Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of the invention will be, or will become, apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figure and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the following claims. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURE 
       The invention can be better understood with reference to the following drawing and description. The components in the figure are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figure, like referenced numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views. 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a pill container/dispenser embodying the principles of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  represents a circuit diagram of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description and the accompanying drawing. 
     Referring to the figure, it can be understood that the principles of the present invention is embodied in a pill container/dispenser  10  which comprises a body  12  that includes a cylindrical sidewall  14  that can be translucent if suitable, a first wall  16  that is a bottom wall when the device is in a use orientation such as shown in  FIG. 1 , and an open mouth  20  that is defined by a rim  22  to which a cap  30  is releasably attached. A cylindrical dispenser pill-dispensing channel  40  is defined on one portion of the sidewall and extends between the first wall and the rim and terminates in a pill-dispensing opening  42  that is co-planar with the open mouth of the sidewall. Pills, or the like, are stored in body  12  for dispensing as needed. 
     Cap  30  includes a circular body  50  and an arcuate projection  52 , with the body being shaped and sized to be releasably mounted on rim  22  with projection  52  being shaped, sized and positioned to overlie mouth  42  when the cap is in place on body  12  to close opening  42  and prevent pills stored in the device from passing out of the device via the opening  42  or via mouth  20 . Cap  30  further includes a locking mechanism  60  which locks the cap to the body when activated, and which unlocks the cap sufficiently to uncover opening  42  when de-activated. Locking mechanism  60  includes a bolt  62  which moves out of a channel in the cap to abut sidewall  14  adjacent to rim  22  when the mechanism is activated and to move into the channel out of abutment with the sidewall when the mechanism is de-activated. In this manner, mechanism  60  will lock the cap onto the body when activated and will permit the cap to move when de-activated. 
     As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , mechanism  60  is controlled by a fingerprint-recognition system  64  that includes a circuit  66  electrically connected to locking mechanism  60  and to a thumb clamp  68  in a manner such that when a user places his or her thumb on clamp  68 , the thumbprint is read by circuit  66 , and if the user is authorized, the print will be approved and the locking mechanism will be de-activated and cap  30  can be moved in a manner to uncover opening  42  and permit a pill, such as pill P, to be dispensed. Alternatively, if the thumbprint is not authorized, the locking mechanism remains active to prevent moving the cap. 
     It is noted that details of the fingerprint recognition systems are known to those skilled in the art from disclosures such as those found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,015,579, 7,023,319, 7,068,145, 7,266,226, among others, with the disclosures of the just-mentioned patents being incorporated herein by reference. The exact details of such mechanisms and systems are not important to this invention and, as such, will not be presented or claimed. 
     Control circuit  66  may be electrically coupled to a memory  67  to store prescription schedule of the pills stored in the dispenser  10 . Before the pills in the dispenser  10  are given to a patient, the pharmacist or the doctor may store the prescription schedule to the memory  67 . The prescription schedule may proscribe the number of fills that is/are to be dispensed within a predetermined amount of time. If a patient desires to take a pill from the dispenser  10 , the patient places his or her finger on the clamp  68 , and if the fingerprint matches, then the circuit  66  determines if the instructions to dispense the pill is within the allowed time period, and if so the correct quantity of pill(s) may be dispensed. As an example, if a doctor proscribes that one pill is to be taken every six hours, but if the patients places its finger print on the clamp before the next dispense period, then the circuit  66  may not dispense the pill. On the other hand, if the patient does not request a pill past the six hour period since the last time the earlier pill was dispensed, then the circuit may give an alarm or give notice to the patient that the next pill needs to be dispensed. 
     Cap  30  further includes a spray mechanism  70  electrically coupled to control circuit  66 , a reservoir  74  and a spray nozzle  76  that is fluidically connected to the reservoir by a small pump  78 . If the cap is tampered with by someone whose fingerprint is not recognized by circuit  66 , the circuit  66  activates the spray mechanism to turn on pump  78  to spray liquid onto the pills stored in the device to destroy or inactivate these pills to render them unusable to thwart the tampering. Again, the exact details of the spray mechanism and its control systems are not important to this invention and thus will not be disclosed or claimed. 
     While various embodiments of the invention have been described, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many more embodiments and implementations are possible within the scope of this invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents.