Patent Application
20140110424
This invention relates to a pill dispenser that aids in the dispensing of pills from a medicine bottle or container typically used for over the counter or prescription medicines in pill form. The task of shaking one or two pills from an irregularly shaped bottle or cylindrical container can often be challenging. Frequently, more pills than are desired spill into the hand and the excess have to be returned to the bottle. In addition to the potential for contamination of the replaced pills, the task is annoying and may be frustrating to seniors with impaired functionality of their hands. The spiral pill dispenser of this invention is an inexpensive solution that controls the movement of pills in a pill bottle that is either irregularly shaped or is cylindrical in form as is frequently used for prescription medications in pill form.
The spiral pill dispenser of this invention is designed for use with an existing pill bottle or for incorporation into the inner surface of a pill bottle during the manufacturing process. These and other features of the spiral pill dispenser are described in relation to the preferred embodiments set forth in the detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
The invented spiral pill dispenser is designed and constructed to aid in the discharge of pills from a pill bottle. The term, “pill” includes both conventional compressed powder formulations and capsules, including liquid-filled capsules. Similarly, the term “bottle” includes both irregularly shaped bottles such as plastic or glass aspirin bottles, and cylindrically shaped bottles such as the plastic canisters that are typically used for pharmaceutical drugs in pill or capsule form. The spiral pill dispenser is in the form of a raised coil on the inside wall of the bottle. The raised coil is provided on at least the portion of the inside of the container next to the opening. The raised coil spirals from a start point within the bottle to a termination next to the bottle opening.
One are more pills are retrieved by a simple sequence. After removing the bottle cap on a bottle containing pills and tipping the bottle in a customary fashion, the bottle is then gently rotated to guide contained pills along the spiral to the opening for discharge. A gentle shake can accompany the rotation to control the sequential discharge, so that only one or two pills are dispensed under the user's control. This simple mechanical addition to the ordinary pill bottle, along with the intuitive rotation of the bottle, facilitates the expedient discharge of pills, one by one.
The dimensions of the raised coil or ridge on the inside wall of the pill bottle naturally depend on the size and configuration of the pills. Smaller pills will require a reduced size in the height of the coils and the spacing of one coil from another in the spiral. It is to be understood that while the preferred embodiment would incorporate the raised coils directly into the wall of the container during manufacturing, other embodiments allow addition of the spiral coil to existing bottles. For example, a preformed coil having an adhesive contact surface can be installed on the inner wall of the bottle. Alternately, for cylindrical canister-type bottles, a tubular sleeve with a raised helical coil on its inner wall can be inserted into the entire length of the bottle, or for both cylindrical and irregular-type bottles, into just the neck of the bottle. These and other features are disclosed in the detailed description that follows a brief description of the drawings.
Referring to
In the unitary embodiment of
The pill bottle 12 of
It is to be understood that the term “pills” includes capsules. Capsules are frequently elongated and therefore require a greater width to the trough 20 than a circular or elliptical pill in order to round the helical path in the neck 16 of the bottle 12 during dispensing. The preferred number of turns can be reduced to accommodate pills of larger size.
The pill bottle 12 of
Referring now to
It is to be understood that just as the integral or unitary raised spiral coil can be incorporated into the wall of a cylindrical bottle during manufacture, a sleeve with an internal raised spiral coil can be adapted for insertion into the neck of an irregularly shaped bottle. Additionally, other modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the dispenser can be in the form of a coil that is adhesively attached to the wall of the bottle in a short spiral.
During use, the method of dispensing pills from a pill bottle having a raised spiral coil in the neck of the bottle located next to the top opening is intuitive. The pill bottle is gently tipped to urge contained pills seated in the trough between raised turns of the coil toward the opening. The pill bottle may optionally be gently shaken to advance the pills to the neck and opening of the bottle. The pill bottle in the tilted position is gently rotated with a clockwise motion to dispense individual pills. Although the procedure is designed for the ease of a right-handed person, a left-handed person can easily adapt with a counter-clockwise rotation. Alternately, a raised spiral coil can be constructed with an opposite rotation for a left-handed person, particularly for the inexpensive insert embodiment.
These and other features have been described with respect to multiple preferred embodiments to illustrate the scope of the invention which is set forth in the claims that follow.
