The Project

The group initially considered making a 3-D version of tangrams to be called Tangigrams. Our multiple-pieces-of-cunning idea was abandoned, because it was considered to have an easy implementation and shallow interaction with limited feedback.

Andy suggested the idea of a gerontechnology product, specifically a medication scheduler and dispenser.

Current products range from low-tech pill boxes to electronic alarm systems, but neither kinds can easily account for complex medication schedules, allow for a level of automation. More robust systems can require training or significant assistance to use. See www.epill.com for examples. The goals of these products include: to aid in prospective memory, to check for compliance, to allow flexible administration within a given day, to make portable storage and alarms, and to organize dosages.

The general goal of our project is to create an interface that allows users to use the pills themselves to set their weekly medication schedule. This includes using the pills for setting the alarms and to program the daily dispensing of the medications into a portable pill-box.

The idea relies on a belief that tangible interaction is easier to learn and inherently meaningful.

Here is a brief user scenario:

Theodore gathers his bottles of medications. He opens a bottle and pours out some pills onto a table. From this pile of pills, he takes one and places onto the top surface of the Scheduler, specifically on the top left cell of a grid on the surface. The grid is made of 7 columns for the 7 days of the week and 3 rows for three different times of the day. This particular cell, according to the axes labels, corresponds to Monday morning. Theodore continues to place pills onto the grid according to the "once-a-day" schedule on the pill bottle. When he is done, he pours the remaining pills into the machine, then repeats this process with the other medications.

Once he is done scheduling the pills, he saves the schedule, the pills on the grid enter the machine, and he walks away. The next morning, he removes a travel container-pill-box from the base of the machine. It has three compartments, one for three different times of the day. Each compartment contains all the pills he is supposed to take for that time of the day.

At the end of the day, he replaces the pill-box into the machine, so that tomorrow, it will be full with the next day's pills.