The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 02, 1996
Filed:
Jan. 30, 1995
Lisa W Rogers, Houston, TX (US);
Thomas L Kraft, Houston, TX (US);
John F Berry, Houston, TX (US);
Scott A Kelley, Houston, TX (US);
John A Thompson, III, Houston, TX (US);
Clifford D Ober, Missouri City, TX (US);
Michael C Kuchar, Houston, TX (US);
Robert R Mayer, Jr, Sugar Land, TX (US);
Van W Hoskins, Friendswood, TX (US);
Vincent C Weido, Houston, TX (US);
Mark G Henckel, Katy, TX (US);
KVM Technologies, Inc., Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A vacuum operated system for individually dispensing items of oral solid medicine from bulk storage to a user, where the medicine is dispensed under computer control, and the quantity and type of medicine is selected in advance by the user. The invention includes medicine dispensing equipment and a computer that provides a user interface. A plurality of storage containers arranged in a rotatable carousel or a rectilinear array may contain various pharmaceutical articles, or various types, dosages, ages, and lot numbers of medicines. The storage containers may be easily refilled by inserting modular refill cartridges into the storage containers. After a user enters certain data into the computer, the invention aligns a universal vacuum probe with the storage container that contains the desired items. The universal vacuum probe is lowered to the desired storage container and engaged with a container probe that is exclusive to that storage container. After a vacuum source creates suction within the universal vacuum probe and the container probe, the universal vacuum probe and the container probe are operated to individually extract items from the storage container. In one embodiment, the extracted items are dispensed into a cup for retrieval by a user. In another embodiment, one or more items are packaged separately in an envelope, which is stored in a portable envelope-organizing tote along with other envelopes containing items requested by that user.