Medicine dispenser with built-in dispensing schedule

摘要

One embodiment of the present invention is a medicine dispenser with a built-in dispensing schedule. In this embodiment, a cylindrical container with a close-fitting disk-shaped cap having a cylindrical rim includes an inner schedule display, one day-and-time indication of which is displayed to a medicine consumer through an aperture in the cap rim. Features included in the cap, schedule display, and cylindrical container interoperates to ensure that the displayed day-and-time indication is advanced when the cap is removed and replaced. The displayed day-and-time indication is relatively large and clear, to facilitate viewing by vision-impaired users, and the schedule-advancement mechanism is robust and reliable. In addition, the cap and built-in schedule display include features that allow the displayed day-and-time indication to be set to an initial day-and-time indication.

主权项

1. A medicine dispenser comprising:
a disc-shaped cap having a cylindrical rim with a schedule-element display aperture, a ratchet wheel, and a number of lugs extending radially inward from a lower edge of the cap; a disc-shaped schedule-display element, mounted within the cap to form a cap-and-schedule-display assembly, having a cylindrical rim with an outer display surface along which schedule elements are positioned, a ratchet wheel complementary to the ratchet wheel of the cap, one or more grips on an inner surface, and biasing features extending from an inner surface of the cylindrical rim; and a cylindrical container, onto which the cap-and-schedule-display assembly is mounted, which includes boss features regularly spaced along an outer surface and positioned to interact with the lugs and biasing features to provide child-proof locking of the cap and to advance a displayed schedule element by one and only one element when the cap is removed and reaffixed to the cylindrical container.