TR-IIS-08-010    Fulltext

Abstract

This paper presents the architecture and implementation of an automatic medication dispenser specifically for users who take medications without close professional supervision. By relieving the users from the error-prone tasks of interpreting medication directions and administrating medications accordingly, the device can improve rigor in compliance and prevent serious medication errors. By taking advantage of scheduling flexibility provided by medication directions, the device makes the user’s medication schedule easy to adhere and tolerant to tardiness whenever possible. This work is done collaborative by the medication scheduler and dispenser controller in an action-oriented manner. An advantage of the action-oriented interface between the components is extensibility, as new functions can be added and existing ones removed with little or no need to modify the dispenser control structure. The paper first describes the action-oriented design, major components and hardware and software structures of the smart device. It then provides an overview of the heuristic algorithms used by the medication scheduler and their relative merits.