| 摘要 |
The present invention is an automatic medication dispenser that is capable of distributing medication according to at least one prescribed time schedule, such as daily or weekly. The dispenser is capable of signaling to the patient the appropriate time for taking the next dosage of medicine by the activation of appropriate alarms. The dispenser has a housing with a removable cap, the housing adapted to receive at least one circularly shaped medication cassette, the at least one medication cassette being rotatable within the housing; a medication exit slot in the housing which allows medication contained by the at least one medication cassette to be distributed from the at least one medication cassette; a drive system contained by the housing which rotates the at least one medication cassette within the housing and a medication detector which is contained by the housing and detects the distribution of the medication, in combination with at least one removable circularly shaped medication cassette. Each of the at least one circularly shaped medication cassettes further comprises a circularly shaped backing plate with an axially located, cam-shaped aperture having a cam-shaped edge, a cam-shaped partition located along the cam-shaped edge and projecting perpendicularly from backing plate, a circularly shaped partition that is co-axial with the cam-shaped aperture and also projects perpendicularly to the backing plate, and a plurality perpendicularly mounted fins extending radially from the center of the backing plate. The medication detector has a transmitter that emits light, and a light detector that detects the light emitted from the transmitter.
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