Importance

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Abstract

An improved and simplified pill dispenser for patients required to take medication comprising a plurality of compartments (A, B, C, and D of FIG. 1) each containing one or more different kinds of pills but all of such pills falling into a class of pills having the same daily morning start-up time and the same time interval between the taking of each pill, a real time clock (RTC) (28), a control panel (FIG. 2) unique to each compartment and comprising, first and second indicators (19 and 20 of FIG. 2) for indicating, respectively, the morning start-up time and the time interval between taking pills, and a time readout indicator (18 of FIG. 2) indicating when the next pill is to be taken. Also provided are a comparator (170 of FIG. 6) for comparing the RTC time with the contents of the readout indicators, an alarm (203 of FIG. 6) responsive to the coincidence of the real time and the contents of the readout indicator to alert the patient to take his pills, a first energizer for transferring the contents of the start-up time indicator (20 of FIG. 2) to the readout indicator at the patient's bedtime, and other energizers (12 and 14 of FIG. 2) energizable by the patient to selectively transfer either the contents of the RTC to the time readout indicator and then add the time interval in the second indicator (19 of FIG. 2) to the contents of the time readout indicator (18 of FIG. 2) or, alternatively, to simply add the time interval to the contents of the time readout indicator (18), depending on how long before or after coincidence between the RTC time and the contents of the time readout indicator ocurred after the other energizers were energized.

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First Claim