Dr. Umesh Dutta, Texas Instruments University Program, Energia, Vinayak Pahujani, Soniya Bhandari, Vikas Pandey

Published April 25, 2019 © GPL3+

Electronic Pill Box

A smart gadget designed to remind elder people about the pill taking time.

IntermediateFull instructions provided2 days1,467

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Texas Instruments MSP-EXP430G2 MSP430 LaunchPad

HC-05 Bluetooth Module

LED (generic)

Buzzer, Piezo

Software apps and online services

Texas Instruments Energia

MIT App Inventor

Story

AIM:

To design an electronic pill box which consists of four compartments. The user can set the pill taking time through the mobile phone application. LED indication and buzzer sound will be given by the system from where the medicine is to be picked.

BRIEF WORKING:

The main function of the device is controlled by the Bluetooth Connection between MIT App Inventor and MSP430 via HC-05 Bluetooth Module. The box consists of 4 compartments each of which has an LED indicator and a common Buzzer inside. We divided the compartments according to the time periods like Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night.The app is responsible to take the data from the user such as Name and Dosage Time. The information is stored in the App using Tiny DB component. The app compares the system time with the Dosage Time so that a reminder can be given to the user when it’s time to take the medicine. As per the time period that they fall in, a message is sent to MSP430 using a Serial Bluetooth Link via the HC-05 Bluetooth Module for further processing.MSP430 reads the message and compares each string in such a way that the first 2 characters tell the compartment number, third character and forth character sets the Frequency and State of the corresponding LED, respectively. The LED will keep blinking and the Buzzer keeps buzzing as long as the user presses a specific button on the app that send a command for resetting MSP430 which in turn switches off all LED's and Buzzer.

MIT APP INVENTOR:

1.Input med_name and med_time for the medicine.

2.Connect to Arduino using serial Bluetooth link.

3.Check each med_time with system_time every second.

4.If a med_time = system_time, then display med_name using Notifier.

5.For each compartment, check the med_time for each compartment’s time range and send the corresponding text to Arduino using Serially linked Bluetooth Module that controls the switching of LED's and Buzzer.

6.If med_time between 02:00 to 12:00, send text=“0011”. If med_time between 12:00 to 16:00, send text=“0111”. If med_time between 16:00 to 20:00, send text=“1011”. If med_time between 20:00 to 24:00, send text=“1111”.

7.After text is sent, show a button to ask whether medicine taken, which on-click

send “0000” to RESET Arduino.

ENERGIA:

1.Set all 4 output pins (11, 12, 13, 18) to LOW and Buzzer (19) to noTone().

2.Connect the Bluetooth Module HC-05 to the app to receive 4-character string.

3.Compare the strings to for the given conditions If string = “0011”, pin 11 -> HIGH, other pins -> LOW and Buzzer -> tone() If string = “0111”, pin 12 -> HIGH, other pins -> LOW and Buzzer ->tone() If string = “1011”, pin 13 -> HIGH, other pins -> LOW and Buzzer ->tone() If string = “1111”, pin 18 -> HIGH, other pins -> LOW and Buzzer ->tone() If string = “0000”, all pins ->LOW and Buzzer -> no Tone()

4.Each condition above is for Compartment 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively for which their corresponding LED indicator will blink.

APPLICATIONS:

The pillbox is not only an electronic reminder gadget that reminds you of the pills we must take but it also has several functions to ensure the safety of the patients.

It has several features reduce the risk of missed doses or errors which can make it easier for healthcare professionals and loved ones to take care of the patients.

The pillbox maintains the medication schedule of the patient and includes an alarm system that alerts the patient that it is time they took their medication. It also shows details of the pill to be taken, as most pills look similar.

The pillbox also keeps a record of the dosage taken and keeps a detailed of the pills taken by the patient.

PrototypeDesignWorking Video:

energia code

#include<string.h>

//int led1=11,led2=12,led3=13,led4=18,buzz=19;
String a;
String str;

  void ledblink(int,char);
  void buzzer(int, char);


void setup()
{
  pinMode(11,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(12,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(13,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(18,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(19,OUTPUT);
  
  Serial.begin(9600);
  digitalWrite(11,LOW);
  digitalWrite(12,LOW);
  digitalWrite(13,LOW);
  digitalWrite(18,LOW);
  noTone(19);
  // put your setup code here, to run once:

}

void loop() {
  if(Serial.available()>0)
     while(Serial.available())
      {
//         for(int i=0;i<3;i++)
//         { 
          while(!Serial.available());
          a=Serial.readString();
          str=a;
//        } 
        //str =str + a;
      }
      //Serial.println(str);    
       
  if(str[0]=='0' && str[1]=='0' && str[3]=='1') // for compartment1
    { 
      
      ledblink(11,str[2]);
     
     digitalWrite(12,LOW);
     digitalWrite(13,LOW);
     digitalWrite(18,LOW);
       buzzer(19,str[2]);
       
     }
 
 
  if(str[0]=='0' && str[1]=='1' && str[3]=='1') // for compartment2
   {
      ledblink(12,str[2]);
    digitalWrite(11,LOW);
     digitalWrite(13,LOW);
      digitalWrite(18,LOW);
       buzzer(19,str[2]);
   }
   
  if(str[0]=='1' && str[1]=='0' && str[3]=='1')// for compartment3
   {
    ledblink(13,str[2]);
    digitalWrite(11,LOW);
     digitalWrite(12,LOW);
      digitalWrite(18,LOW);
       buzzer(19,str[2]);
   }

  if(str[0]=='1' && str[1]=='1' && str[3]=='1')// for compartment4
   {
      ledblink(18,str[2]);
       digitalWrite(11,LOW);
        digitalWrite(12,LOW);
         digitalWrite(13,LOW);
       buzzer(19,str[2]);
   }
   if(str[3]=='0')
    {
       digitalWrite(11,LOW);
        digitalWrite(12,LOW);
         digitalWrite(13,LOW);
         digitalWrite(18,LOW);
         noTone(19);
    }
 }

 void ledblink(int LED,char n) //for LED blinking
   { if(n=='0')
      {
        digitalWrite(LED,HIGH); 
        delay(800);
        digitalWrite(LED,LOW);
        delay(800);
      }
    if(n=='1')
      {digitalWrite(LED,HIGH);
        delay(100);
        digitalWrite(LED,LOW);
        delay(100);
      }
   }
  
   void buzzer(int buzz,char n) // for buzzer alarm 
   { if( n=='0')
      { 
        tone(buzz,1000);   //giving 1Khz signal to buzzer
        delay(800);
        noTone(buzz);
        delay(800);
      }

     if( n=='1')
       {
        tone(buzz,1000);   //giving 1Khz signal to buzzer
        delay(50);
        noTone(buzz);
        delay(50); 
       }
   }

Electronic Pill Box