System and method to count pills

Number of patents in Portfolio can not be more than 2000

United States of America Patent

PATENT NO 12036185
APP PUB NO 20230017452A1
SERIAL NO

17862556

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ATTORNEY / AGENT: (SPONSORED)

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Abstract

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A pill counting device includes a step feeder having moveable slats interleaved with fixed slats. The movable slats are vertically offset from one another and are configured to move vertically between top platforms of adjacent fixed slats to carry pills vertically up the step feeder. A top movable slat orients a subset of the plurality of pills into a row of pills to be fed into a count chamber. A camera configured to capture an image of a pill of the individual pills as it falls through the count chamber. The device further includes a control system configured to control movement of the movable slats and to control capturing of images by the camera. The control system is further configured to calculate a characteristic of the pill from the image, and to increment a pill counter in response to the characteristic of the pill meeting predefined criteria.

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Patent Owner(s)

Patent OwnerAddress
OPTUM INC9900 BREN ROAD EAST MINNETONKA MN 55343

International Classification(s)

Inventor(s)

Inventor Name Address # of filed Patents Total Citations
Mahar, Michael L Tempe, US 10 618
Trinh, Toan Q Phoenix, US 2 0

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