For anyone who needs pills, not taking them can be a serious problem. That medication usually is there for a reason; to keep you safe. Not taking it could mean pain, conditions getting worse, or even death. One of the major causes of non-compliance with medication is forgetfulness; if you don't remember to take your pills, you can't take them. We aimed to fix that, with a portable, programmable pillbox.
We started out with a large box, about 10 centimeters in diameter. It had three compartments for pills, a covered compartment for electronics, and a pocket on the bottom for a battery pack. This turned out to be too large, so we cut it down to 6 cm in diameter. After fixing a lot of scaling problems, we found that this worked a lot better. So, we began work on the electronics. We decided to use a tiny arduino, called the Digispark, because it was the smallest functional arduino we saw on the market. We set it up so that it could recieve timestamp data via serial port, and incorporate that into its timing circuit. We added a hole into the side of the electronics compartment, so you could connect to the arduino. Every day, it would ring at the times you set, maybe off by a second or two. Along with timestamp data, you also send a color indicator: this tells you which compartment the pills you need to take are in. The arduino will then flash that compartment's light, and buzz.