The initial idea was to make a phone case that holds pills. The first step was to brainstorm where to put the pills.  The pills were going to be put at the bottom of the phone case.  However, that idea was scrapped because it would interfere with the charging of the phone.  The pills were then going to be put on the back of the iPhone case.  The first concept was one big compartment. However, for organizational reasons, the big compartment was split into 4 smaller compartments for multiple pills.  The next step was to make these compartments modular, so they could be arrainged in multiple ways.  They were made to slide onto a platform which would be the back of the iPhone case.  The design of these compartments was changed to make them independant from eachother, so that one could be removed without having to take another one off.

All of the pieces were designed in Rhino and then 3D printed.  There were several challenges in this project. One of the big challenges was trying to make the case as thin as possible, but still functional.  Another challenge was making the design 3D printable.  The 3D printer was not able to print all of our desings well. The next steps would be to connect the containers to an actual iPhone case.  It would be interesting if there was an app for the iPhone that was designed to give the user reminders to take their pills and to tell them when they needed to re-fill the case.

The iPill is a case for the iPhone that has compartments designed to easily store pills. An important factor that we focused on was the size of the case itself. It had to be big enough to hold large pills, such as a fish oil pill, but thin enough to fit comfortably inside of a pocket. Another important feature that we implemented was the fact that the compartments are modular. They can be removed and replaced so that the case can be customized for the user. There are bigger compartments and smaller compartments that can be removed and replaced. 

The iPill addressed the problem of making pills more portable. If somebody carries their pills with them, it can be a hastle to carry a pill container with them all the time, and it is easy to misplace or forget it. With this phone case, if they have their phone with them, than they have their pills with them. For example, if a new mother uses this case, they can always have baby aspirin and disinfecting wipes wherever they go, so that if their child hurts themselves, the mother will always be able to help right away. 

The case consists of two major parts. The first part is the base. The base rests on top of the case and has T shaped slots that run through it. With out the compartments, the base looks like an ordinary iPhone case with grooves on it. The containers are the second part. The containers have rails on the bottom that correspond with the base. That way, they can slide in and out with ease, yet they do not fall out on their own because the friction holds them in place. They also have a cover that slides in and out, so the user can open and close the  compartments. The covers are also held in by tension. The iPill consists of two large compartments, four small compartments, four small covers, and the base.

We needed to come up with a way to attach the compartments to the phone case. The first idea was to have hinges on the compartments that corresponded with holes in the back of the case. In the picture above, the red part would be on the container, and the blue part would be inside of the case. However, when we printed this, the parts were too small to hold the pieces together. So, we opted to use a rail idea. The containers have rails on them that slide into slots on the back of the case, so that they can easily slide in and out. The rails had to be small enough to fit inside of the slots, but big enough so that they could be held in place with friction alone.