Pill container
First Claim
1. A pill container comprising:
- a housing with a compartment for storing pills;
a door for accessing the compartment, the door having open and closed orientations;
a locking mechanism having a locked state in which the locking mechanism secures the door in its closed orientation and unlocking state in which the locking mechanism releases the door for displacement to its open orientation;
an actuator displaceable relative to the housing;
means responsive to displacement of the actuator for placing the locking mechanism in its unlocking state;
counting means visually indicating a count, the counting means comprising coupling means responsive to the displacement of the actuator for incrementing the count;
whereby, each time the actuator is displaced to release the door, the counter increments its counts.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A pill container has a lower part with eight compartments, and an upper part that rotates on the lower part. The compartments are side-by-side in a circular arrangement, and each normally contains a daily allotment of pills. The upper part carries a door, and a detent mechanism ensures that the door locates successively over each compartments. A button can be depressed to release a locking mechanism normally securing the door. A mechanical linkage simultaneously transforms axial displacement of the button into an indexing of a numbered plate relative to an indicator, effectively counting the number of times the door has been opened to remove pills. This provides an indication of the number of pills consumed. Manual rotation of the upper part to locate over a new compartment automatically resets the count. Alternatively, an electronic counter and display with appropriate switches may be used.
54 Citations
16 Claims
-
1. A pill container comprising:
-
a housing with a compartment for storing pills; a door for accessing the compartment, the door having open and closed orientations; a locking mechanism having a locked state in which the locking mechanism secures the door in its closed orientation and unlocking state in which the locking mechanism releases the door for displacement to its open orientation; an actuator displaceable relative to the housing; means responsive to displacement of the actuator for placing the locking mechanism in its unlocking state; counting means visually indicating a count, the counting means comprising coupling means responsive to the displacement of the actuator for incrementing the count; whereby, each time the actuator is displaced to release the door, the counter increments its counts. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A pill container comprising:
-
a housing comprising a lower housing portion defining a multiplicity of pill-receiving compartments in circumferentially side-by-side relationship and an upper housing portion shaped to close and separate the compartments; a door secured to the upper housing portion and having open and closed orientations; a locking mechanism secured to the upper housing portion, the locking mechanism having a locked state in which the locking mechanism secures the door in its closed orientation and unlocked state in which the locking mechanism releases the door for displacement to its open orientation; joining means releasably joining the upper housing portion to the lower housing portion for manual rotation about a predetermined axis, the joining means comprising detent means for resisting relative rotation of the upper and lower housing portions whenever the upper housing portion is in any one of a multiplicity of predetermined positions relative to the lower housing portion, each of the predetermined positions corresponding to location of the door over a different one of the compartments; an actuator displaceable relative to the housing; means responsive to displacement of the actuator for unlocking the locking mechanism to release the door; counting means for visually indicating a count, the counting means comprising coupling means responsive to displacement of the actuator for incrementing the count; and
,means for resetting the count to a predetermined value in response to rotation of the upper housing between adjacent ones of its positions relative to the lower housing portion. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
Specification