Talking Pill Bottle Patent Describes Mouthy Meds
iVoice have been crowing happily [pdf link] about their latest patent, which describes a new way of pestering those on medication to pop their pills. Titled "Methodology for Talking Consumer Products with Voice Instructions via Wireless Technology", it covers individual medication bottles that have a wireless chip, microprocessor and speaker built into them, and which are given unique instructions (dose, regularity, total number of pills) at the point of dispensing by a separate computer.
The pharmacist would record (or have pre-recorded) a dose instruction which would be transferred – via infrared, some form of RF or another wireless means – to the pill container; when the container was opened for the first time, the voice prompt would be played. Meanwhile, the brains of the bottle counts down the dose, knowing when to stop suggesting that it's medication time.
Another section of the patent describes a second microprocessor system which would play warning information about use and/or misuse of the medication.
All well and good, but not the thing to have in your medicine cupboard – announcing it's time to take whatever's necessary to clear up that nasty STI – when a date is visiting.