Smart pill box solution development

According to the "China Population Aging Development Trend Forecast Research Report" issued by the Office of the National Working Committee on Aging and the "China Family Development Report 2015" issued by the National Health and Family Planning Commission, my country entered an aging society in 1999. Growth, nearly 58.1% of the elderly population has been diagnosed with chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and Parkinson's disease. Due to the long treatment cycle of chronic diseases, long-term medication is required, while the memory and vision of the elderly continue to decline with age. Forgot to take medication, repeated medication, unclear dosage, and children who take medication by mistake often cannot be informed in time. , every year there are more and more cases where the condition is aggravated due to medication and missed treatment.

According to the market and the analysis of the relevant data of the smart medicine box under research, the problem of forgetting to take medicine and unclear dosage can be solved by audible and photoelectric reminders, the problem of forgetting whether to take medicine can be solved by APP or SMS recording, and the problem of mistakenly taking other medicines can be solved The results were not good. At present, most smart pill boxes use medicines that are unpacked and stored in the pill box in the form of pills or tablets, and then the medicine is automatically dispensed. This approach can easily cause problems such as drug contamination and increased drug storage costs. A small number of products store medicines in the form of unopened packaging, only to ensure that the entire medicine box is locked during the non-medication period. When the time for taking medicine is up, all medicines in the medicine box are open to users, which is not effective in preventing accidental medication.

Therefore, on the basis of selecting miniature electromagnets to ensure the smaller volume of the jacking mechanism, this system combines electronic technology with mechanical design, and designs a system that has regular reminders to take medicine, locks the state of taking medicine, enters prompt voice, and text prompts to take medicine. Information, when it is time to take the medicine, only the medicine compartment containing the target medicine will pop up, and other medicines cannot be taken out, and the smart medicine box with functions such as SMS timely feedback of abnormal status.

1. Overall design of smart pill box system for the elderly

The system will take the form of an organic combination of machinery and electronics to realize this smart medicine box. Multiple medicine bins are placed in the medicine box. Since the storage hygiene and environmental requirements are higher after the medicine is removed from the packaging, the system design retains the medicine packaging. The round medicine warehouse stores round medicine cans, and the square medicine warehouse stores square medicines. Bottles, flat-shaped medicine compartments store medicines packaged in aluminum foil. In order to prevent elderly users from taking medication by mistake, the system is equipped with a lifting and detection device at the bottom of each medicine bin. When the medication time is up, only the target medicine bin will pop up. Then multiple sound and light reminders are used to ensure that elderly users understand medication information. Considering that the users of this system are targeted at elderly people who have problems such as forgetfulness, hearing impairment, or visual impairment and need to take medication for a long time. The children of this group of people are usually not around, so the system deliberately On the basis of the reminder sound, the function of manually entering the reminder sound is added, so that the elderly can take medicine every day as if they are reminded by the closest person, and increase product friendliness. After the elderly user takes the medicine and presses the medicine compartment back into the medicine box, the system is waiting to resume circulation.

After detailed design and analysis, and after comprehensive system cost and performance, the overall design block diagram of the smart pill box is shown in Figure 1. The timing reminder function is completed by the high-precision clock chip DS12C887+ in conjunction with the controller STM32. Locking the medication status and preventing misuse of medication are performed by The medicine warehouse control module is completed, and the sound and light combination reminder function is completed by the audio module, super bright indicator light, LCD display and GPRS module respectively.

2. Hardware design of smart pill box system for the elderly

2.1 Pharmacy lifting and detection module

There are 3 medicine bins in the smart pill box. Each medicine bin plus the lifting unit at the bottom is a special medicine storage device. The special medicine storage device locks the medication status through the lifting unit to prevent elderly users from taking other medicines in the medicine box. The structure of the lifting unit is shown in Figure 2. It consists of a base, a micro switch, a lifting column, a bumper block, an electromagnet and other parts. All components are installed on the base through screws. There is a spring inside the lifting column. , to ensure that the lifting column will be lifted when the electromagnet core shaft contracts. The working status is as follows: when the medication time is up, if the micro switch is in the closed state, the electromagnet is energized, the electromagnet core shaft shrinks and exits the limit hole under the action of magnetic force, and the lifting column and the medicine bin above it are lifted up by the built-in spring , it is detected that the micro switch is disconnected, the electromagnet is powered off, and the magnetism disappears. The electromagnet core shaft returns to the extended state, but it cannot reach into the limit hole at this time. After the user takes the medicine, press the medicine chamber and the lifting column drops to At the lowest height, the electromagnet core shaft extends into the limit hole, locks the lifting column, detects that the micro switch is closed, and the medication process ends.

The lifting drive circuit of the medicine bin is composed of a miniature electromagnet HCNE and two NPN transistors BU406 and SS8050. Since the pin current of the microcontroller is small, and the electromagnet driving current requirement in the system is large, the high-power transistor BU406 is selected as the driving device of the electromagnet. At this time, the base current of BU406 exceeds 0.5A, so the pins of the microcontroller The terminal controls the BU406 transistor through SS8050. SS8050 is a power upgrade version of S8050. The collector current can reach 1.5A, which meets the system requirements after testing.

The medicine bin in-place detection circuit is implemented by a microswitch and a microcontroller input GPIO. When the GPIO detects that the voltage is high, it indicates that the switch is released and the medicine compartment pops up; when the GPIO detects that the voltage is low, it indicates that the switch is pressed and the medicine compartment is locked in the medicine box.

2.2 DS12C887 clock module and FLASH memory module

The clock module is mainly composed of the real-time clock chip DS12C887, and the FLASH memory module is mainly composed of the electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) AT24C64. DS12C887 has complete calendar information and can read and write calendar and setting information through MOTOROLA and INTEL buses. It has its own rechargeable lithium battery and crystal oscillator to ensure that time information is not lost after power failure. It is used in home appliances, instruments, and industrial control systems. Wide application. Considering that DS12C887 can only generate one alarm clock, the system adds EEPROM AT24C64 to store multiple alarm clock reminder times, text messages, and reminder sounds for each medicine warehouse.

3. Software design of smart pill box system for the elderly

The system first initializes each functional module, and then puts the medicine packages into each medicine warehouse separately before starting the use of the elderly, and makes corresponding settings for each medicine warehouse, such as setting reminder sounds, setting reminder time, setting text reminder information, Set up an emergency contact number. When the time to take a certain medicine is up, the smart pill box plays the medicine warehouse reminder sound, the super bright indicator light flashes, the medicine warehouse automatically pops up, and the screen displays the text prompt of the medicine. The elderly can turn off the medicine warehouse reminder sound and flashing by pressing any key. You can also turn on the light after taking the medicine and press the medicine container back to its original position. All reminders will automatically end. If the elderly does not press the medicine container back to its original position for more than 30 minutes, the medicine box will send this abnormal medication information to the emergency contact. You can see at a glance whether you have taken medicine or not by looking at the medicine compartment. All medicine compartments cannot be opened by themselves without setting up dressing changes, preventing the elderly from taking medication by mistake.

4. Design of smart pill box solution based on Bluetooth 4.0 and APP control

In order to provide better feedback on the elderly's medication status, with the development of IT technology, pill boxes with intelligent information processing capabilities have emerged. This article designs a portable smart pill box with medication detection and medication reminder functions. This design has the functions of voice reminder, drug dosage display, one-key emergency alarm, and has the function of synchronizing information with the smart phone through Bluetooth 4.0 and realizing the monitoring of the carrying situation of the medicine box. A supporting APP based on the Android system has been developed, allowing the pill box to interact with patients and guardians at the same time. This system also integrates a body temperature detection module and uses the GPRS module to synchronize user medication information to the server.

The smart pill box designed in this article has the functions of medication detection and medication reminder. Record the user's medication behavior by detecting the switch of the pill box, and record the user's medication time. The user can be reminded to take medicine according to the preset time. This system chooses to use nRF51822 chip as the main control chip. The system realizes the data synchronization between the smart medicine box and the mobile phone APP through Bluetooth, and detects whether the medicine box leaves the bluetooth coverage, so as to realize the detection of the user carrying the medicine box in the mobile phone APP. The system uses the GRPS module to realize the base station positioning of the medicine box, and integrates the GY-MCU90615 sensor module to realize body temperature detection. Implement user registration and management, pill box testing, medication information collection and sharing on WeChat in the APP.

5. Bluetooth smart pill box hardware design

The hardware part of the smart medicine box is composed of a power module, a main control module and a Bluetooth module, a body temperature detection module, a user interaction module, a GPRS module and related peripheral circuits. The user interaction module includes an LCD display and 6 physical buttons on the pill box to achieve direct interaction between the pill box and the user.

5.1 Power module

The power module is powered by a nominal 3.7V lithium battery. The GPRS module is directly driven by a lithium battery to work, while the main system requires a 3.3V voltage to drive. Here, a 3.3V voltage conversion circuit is used to power the main system. The voltage conversion chip uses RICHTEK's RT9193LDO power chip. The working voltage of this chip is 2.5~5.5V, the standby current is less than 0.01μA, and it has overcurrent protection and overheating protection functions.

In addition, since the lithium battery charging circuit is designed, a charging IC is also needed to ensure that the MicroUSB5V power supply can charge the lithium battery. The charging IC uses TI's charging ICBQ24040.

5.2 Main control module and Bluetooth module

Since the smart medicine box hardware has limited computing power requirements for the main control chip, and the smart medicine box as a portable device has high requirements for system energy consumption, so this design chooses the nRF51822 chip with the function of the Bluetooth module as the main control chip, nRF51822 adopts ARMCoretex-M0 core, and integrated Bluetooth 4.0 radio frequency circuit, has 31 GPIO ports, 256kB internal Flash, 16kB RAM, and rich peripherals such as I2C, UART, etc., supports Bluetooth 4.0 protocol, and meets most low-power consumption applications.

5.3 Body temperature detection module

The body temperature detection module uses the GY-MCU90615 integrated module. This module implements signal transmission from the sensor to the processor. The body temperature detection function can be realized by connecting the main control IC to a pair of UART signals to communicate with the module.

5.4GPRS module

The GPRS module uses the FIBOCOG510 module. The G510 module supports GSM quad-band 850/900/1800/1900MHz, and has a built-in protocol stack and dual serial ports. The module can be integrated into any system or product that requires voice calls or data transmission over cellular networks.

6. Software design of bluetooth smart medicine box system

6.1 System main program design

The main program of the system implements functions such as medication timing, information display, medication behavior detection, pill box search, and recording user medication information. The user's medication information recorded in the pill box can be connected to the Internet through GPRS and sent to the server and recorded in the database.

6.2AndroidAPP design

This design developed an Android-based APP that is matched with the pill box to allow users to interact with the pill box through their mobile phones. First, realize the user management function in the APP. Users register, manage and maintain passwords on the APP. Secondly, the Bluetooth search function of the mobile phone is used in the APP to detect the pill box carried by the user. If the mobile phone cannot search for the pill box, the APP will issue a warning to the user. Finally, the APP provides an interface for interacting with the user. Table 1 gives the design requirements for each functional module of the APP.

In the user interaction module, the following functions are included:

(1) Medication detection: After the APP and the pill box simultaneously send out medication reminders, the user's medication behavior is recorded by detecting the opening and closing of the lid of the pill box.

(2) Terminal information synchronization: APP can synchronize user settings to the pill box terminal through Bluetooth.

(3) Set the drug name and medication time: You can set the drug name, medication time and medication settings for each cell, and you can also start barcode scanning. Information such as the name of the medicine can be automatically obtained by scanning the barcode on the medicine package. The user's electronic medical record information can be synchronized to the APP through the APP's automatically launched function of finding the user's mobile phone number, and the time and settings for taking medicine can be obtained.

(4) Export drug instructions: On the APP side, you can query the drug name and export the drug instructions from the server, or you can export the drug instructions from the server by scanning the QR code on the outer packaging of the drug.

(5) Generate a medication report and share the medication report to WeChat.

(6) Drug statistics function: The APP obtains the number of drugs and the number of drugs taken by scanning drug codes and recording drug-taking behaviors. The difference between the two is the amount of remaining drug.

Summarize

In recent years, as my country's population structure has gradually transitioned to an aging population, my country has become the country with the largest elderly population in the world and one of the countries with the fastest growing elderly population. According to statistics in 2014, the proportion of people over 60 years old in my country has exceeded 14.9% of the total population. Many older adults suffer from chronic diseases that require long-term, regular medication. As their memory gradually declines and their hearing gradually weakens, the elderly are prone to problems such as forgetting to take medication, not taking medication as directed, taking medication repeatedly, and taking the wrong dose of medication, which can lead to serious consequences. As guardians, it is also easy for children to supervise the medication status of the elderly due to busy work and other reasons.

This system prevents the elderly from missing medicine, forgetting whether they have taken the medicine, or taking the wrong medicine. At the same time, through sound, text, and light prompts, it ensures that the elderly can learn about the information of taking medicine in time. Finally, the supplementary remote phone message notification , personalized recording, liquid crystal display and other functions make the system more perfect, which will effectively improve the quality of life of the elderly who take medicine for a long time, and has a very good promotion value.

The above are the details of the bluetooth smart pill box solution introduced by Shenzhen Zuchuang Microelectronics Co., Ltd. for you. If you have the development and design needs of smart pill boxes for the elderly, you can rest assured to entrust them to us. We have rich experience in custom development of electronic products, and can evaluate the development cycle and IC price as soon as possible, and can also calculate the PCBA quotation. We are a number of chip agents at home and abroad: Songhan, Yingguang, Jieli, Ankai, Quanzhi, realtek, with MCU, voice IC, Bluetooth IC and module, wifi module. Our development capabilities cover PCB design, single-chip microcomputer development, Bluetooth technology development, software customization development, APP customization development, WeChat official account development and other hardware and software design. It can also undertake the research and development of smart electronic products, the design of household appliances, the development of beauty equipment, the development of Internet of Things applications, the design of smart home solutions, the development of TWS earphones, the development of Bluetooth earphone speakers, the development of children's toys, and the development of electronic education products.