Keywords

1 Introduction

1.1 Chronic Diseases and Medication

According to a report from World Health Organization in 2014 [1], it shows the ages of patients with chronic diseases are decreasing, and the numbers are becoming more and more by every year. In 2010, the top three causes of death in world’s top ten are all chronic diseases [2] and currently, the most effective treatment for chronic disease will still be constant medication.

In addition, in The Smart Pill Box [3] by Brianna Abbey, it mentioned that it is actually very complicated for patients to memorize the information patients will take for taking a medication, among them there are seven properties: drug name, indication, usage, frequency of use per day, hours of use, dose and duration of treatment. The complexity of information required to use drug and treatment both determine whether the patient can continue such medication.

1.2 Smart Pillbox

Smart pillbox, an electronic pillbox, is a combination of “alarm clock” and “traditional pillbox”. The ordinary model adopts LCD panel as its display interface, and it is with multiple buttons for setting reminder function as various designs for selection, but there exists the complexity issue for operation on interface.

Afterwards, as to the more advanced design, A WSN smart medication system [4], it adopts main unit, pillbox that can be carried separately and combine them with wireless transmission technology to record relevant information and integrate functions more patients need. The operating also transforms from traditional button to touch-panel, which can be operated more easily. However, the size of its main unit is large and more suitable for use in home. If you go out, although you can carry the sub-pillbox, you cannot use other functions. And in The Intelligent Pill Box by Shih-Chang Huang [5], this device connects medical personnel and patient through internet communication software to let medical personnel instantly comprehend the treatment status of such patient, but it was designed hard to be carried. Therefore this study aims to combine aforementioned advantages of wireless transmission, solve the issue of hard to be carried and improve functions of displaying information and relevant operation.

1.3 Tangible User Interface and Smart Mobile Devices

As for the operation, this study attempts to adopt user interface as the operation interface of this system. The user interface applies many tangible and touchable objects for multiple users, systems or software to interact [6], such as table games [7], interactive digital games [8], the creation by controlling music [9] and other functions; Users can intuitively use both hands to touch and move objects for operating [10], and it can also give such user the instant feedback for senses of touch and vision. This study wishes to apply the traits of intuitive use and instant feedback to improve the easiness of operating the smart pillbox.

According to the latest statistic data counted by III and Mobile First in the end of 2014 [11], population with carrying smart devices in Taiwan has reached 69.1 % of total population. Smart mobile device has become the most common information display device carried in the modern age, so it will be the information display device for this system. With the result in study of Magnetic Appcessories [12] and MagGetz [13] which detected magnet around and make it as the effect of operating mobile device, pillboxes were connected to be detected by tablet computer, in order to generate various modes of interaction.

2 Design and Implement

2.1 System Structure

This study was designed a smart pillbox system which, with magnet, connects prototypes of round-shaped pillbox printed by 3D printer, and places magnets with different magnetic forces on the bottom for identification of system (Fig. 1a–c). In the study Google Nexus 7 (2013) was taken as the tablet computer for testing, and GaussSense [14] was installed behind to strengthen the stability and accuracy magnetic force acquired (Fig. 1d). Later, the information was transmitted to application coded with Unity through WIFI, and the tablet computer will show relevant information and interactive response (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

(a, b, c) Pillbox prototype, and (d) Google Nexus 7 (2013) with GaussSense

Full size image
Fig. 2.
figure 2

System framework diagram

Full size image

2.2 The Designing of the Smart Pillbox System

In this study, three functions patients with chronic diseases would need the most were practiced: Drug Information, Reminder Setting and Medication Record (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3.
figure 3

Operation flowchart

Full size image

  • Main Menu. In the main menu, you only need to simply place such pillbox on the screen of tablet computer to let the program of rotating pillbox select function required. After required functions have been selected, you can enter the interface of such function by removing pillbox from the screen.

  • Drug Information. In this function, you can search features of medication taken this time, such as appearance, name, and side effect to let patient verify the proper effect and possible side effect of drug. In the past, the functions regarded to this part were seldom developed, therefore a patient could only identify medication according to medical prescription, and would not be able to easily recognize them before taking. The user would only need to place a single pillbox on tablet computer, then the screen of computer will show all relevant medication information set by such pillbox, and the user can seek for more detailed information by simply rotating pillboxes.

  • Reminder Setting. To keep user from missing the time of taking medication, you can easily set alarm clock for period that requires reminding. When you are setting, you need to place two pillboxes on it, and set the data of medication and time of taking by controlling two pillboxes with your both hands. The pillbox placed on the top can identify the medication in such pillbox through magnetic force, and you can rotate the pillbox underneath to select the time for reminding. Unlike most electronic pillbox which were installed with alarming function directly on the body of pillbox, this function applies the alarm clock and reminding functions embedded in tablet computer, as it does not only allow user to set their favored sound effects, but also can combine different ways of reminding, such as vibration, sending an e-mail and more.

  • Medication Record. It presents the medication status for such month with the form of calendar, and mark times of taking medication with different colors for easy comprehension. The user can switch status of taking medication between different months by simply rotating a single pillbox.

2.3 System Testing

After the user place a pillbox on tablet computer, he can instantly start to select functions with rotation (Fig. 4a). After entering the function Drug Information, if the user place a single pillbox on tablet computer, system will automatically identify the medication information set by pillbox through magnetic force and displace relevant information on screen (Fig. 4b and c). While staying in the function Reminder Setting, if you place the medication set on the top, system will identify such medication in the pillbox and you can rotate underneath it to set the time for reminding (Fig. 4d and e).

Fig. 4.
figure 4

(a) Main menu, (b, c) Drug Information, and (d, e) Reminder Setting

Full size image

3 Conclusion and Future Works

This study attempts to apply the latest 3D printing technology to make real prototype of pillbox, and combine the cognition of real object, possibility of operating such object to extend them to the usage of real user interface with digital content, therefore they can be directly linked with human’s cognition to make such system designed as really human orientated. Due to restriction on time and resource, currently, the system still remains in a very basic status. With further testing and improvement, I believe there are more functions and concepts to be inspired, and they can all be reference and new direction for the future development of real user interface and smart pillbox connected by smart mobile device and platform.