When Technology Science meets Health Sciences! UP students invent Smart Medicine Box

The Internet of things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects “things” that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the Internet. Smart IoT challenge is a 48-hour hackathon, where entrepreneurs are given the time to build a prototype IoT (Internet of Things) product tackling one of these sectors: health, education, environment, agriculture, industrial, and security.

Entrepreneurs are also taught to program and build basic functionalities with Arduino boards so they can build a working prototype. They are given 5 mins to pitch their idea in front of a judging panel. The winner gets $500 and runner up $300. UP students Henry Chea and Soradet Lim who are from MeetDoctor were arranged with two more members, Laksmy Sreng and Rothsamnang Phalla. They came up with an idea of building a smart medicine box for old people for their daily use. The box was built with three main functions, the real time and date on the display screen just like a normal clock, a speaker with recorded sound as a reminder, and an opening-closing sensor.

“Let’s imagine my grandmother has hypertension and she needs to take her medication every morning. As I knew that my grandmother often forgets things, so I use this smart medicine box and set a reminder at 7 am every morning with a recorded sound of mine. As a result of that, every morning at 7 am, the box will speak to remind her to take medicine until she takes out the drug and closes the box with a sensor attached to the cap of the box.” Said Soradet.

With this wonderful solution, Smart Medicine Box project won 2nd Prize of the competition with a $300 prize awarded. Well done UP students.