Method and apparatus to identify and separate medicinal preparations and dosages thereof

• US 20060249423A1
• Filed: 06/27/2006
• Published: 11/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mika Reijonen
• Original Assignee: Mika Reijonen
• Inventors: Reijonen, Mika
• Application Number:
  US11/475,453
• Publication Number:
  US 20060249423A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 206/534
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/00 Pattern recognition

Abstract

Machine vision is used for the separation or identification of medicinal preparation or the dosage of medication in various situations for example, without limitation, morning, day, evening and night doses, in which the dose is delivered from medicine boxes or other containers. In one implementation the medicine table or medicine box that is typically set to a planar scanner and a picture is taken with a camera or a camera phone and the picture is analyzed with machine vision software for separation and indentification of the medical preparation or the dose. Medicines are then recognized in cooperation with a database, and information related to the recognized medicines are transmitted or displayed. The identification of the medicinal preparation is often useful in many official tasks that require near real time identification of the medicine.

Claims

1. A method for identifying and separating a medicinal preparation and/or for dosage preparation thereof, the method comprising the Steps of:

registering a computer readable image of the medicinal preparation or the dose;

configuring a machine vision system to analyze the computer readable image and to discriminate the medicinal preparation into at least some of its constituent parts; and

,

searching a database to find corresponding matches for said discriminated constituent parts, and retrieving any information related to the found corresponding matches for use in characterizing, separating, and/or dosage preparation of the medicinal preparation.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the Step of registering is a digitizing process that is performed by a scanner, a camera, a cellular camera phone, a smart camera, a web camera, a video camera or with any combination of these.

3. The method of claim 1, in which the analysis of the registered image is performed at least in part by a patter recognition technology, a fuzzy logic system, a neural network or any combination thereof to recognize different known medicinal preparations and/or doses thereof.

4. The method of claim 3, in which the pattern recognition analysis is at least in part based on using any combination of the medicinal preparation'"'"'s shape, color, surface texture, parametric relationships.

5. The method of claim 1, in which the image information registered comprises information of light beyond the visible wave lengths.

6. The method of claim 5, in which a Raman spectrometer is used to discriminate at least some of the constituent parts by providing a molecular signature of at least one drug molecule comprised in said medicinal preparation, thereby enabling the Step of searching to identify the drugs(s) by finding a corresponding molecular signature(s) stored in said database.

7. The method of claim 1, in which said retrieved information comprises information related to the amount medicine present in the medicinal preparation and/or related medicinal information.

8. The method claims 7, in which the medicinal information or/and the medicinal preparation'"'"'s amount can be compared to previous proportioning times that are stored in a computer memory.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the Step of training said machine vision system to recognize a plurality of different medicinal preparation, and associating, with each learned medicinal preparation, retrievable information corresponding to prescriptions, medicine data, medication dosages and/or patient information.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the Step of initiating said method by manual means or an automated process.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the Steps of:

using said retrieved information to determine if a problem exists in the type, usage, and/or dosage preparation of the medicinal preparation; and

,

if there is a problem, transmitting a notification or alert that indicates there is a problem, and optionally characterizes the problem(s).

12. An apparatus for identifying and separating a medicinal preparation and/or for dosage preparation thereof, the apparatus comprising:

means for registering a computer readable image of the medicinal preparation or the dose;

means for configuring a machine vision system to analyze the computer readable image and to discriminate the medicinal preparation into at least some of its constituent parts; and

means for searching a database to find corresponding matches for said discriminated constituent parts, and retrieving any information related to the found corresponding matches for use in characterizing, separating, and/or dosage reparation of the medicinal preparation.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising means for training said machine vision system to recognize a plurality of different medicinal preparation, and associating, with each learned medicinal preparation, retrievable information corresponding to prescriptions, medicine data, medication dosages, and/or patient information.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising means for initiating said apparatus manually or by an automated process.

15. Thee apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

means for determining if a problem exists in said retrieved information; and

,

means for transmitting a notification or alert that indicates there is a problem, and optionally characterizes the problem(s).

16. The apparatus of claim 12, in which said apparatus is implemented as a medicine delivery table or a docking medicine box optionally comprising movable partitions, a scanner, any kind of camera, a start to initiate the registering process, or a vibrator operable to facilitate separating medicinal preparation from each another.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising means for communicating said retrieved information or derivatives thereof to a remote system.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising a controllable light source used in the image registration process, and means for adjusting the lighting of said light source to improve the performance thereof.

19. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising means for displaying said retrieved information or derivatives thereof.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, in which the medicinal preparation is a tablet or a capsule.