Patent 6539281 Issued on March 25, 2003. Estimated Expiration Date: April 23, 2021. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
700/236, Data collection or reporting (e.g., sales, inventory)700/237, Authorization (e.g., password, time usage limit, personal identification number (PIN)700/244Monitoring or inspection
A medicine cabinet or similar device that assists users in selecting and taking medication. A radio frequency receiver is configured to read information included on radio frequency sensitive labels that are attached to items containing medication in the medicine cabinet. A computer in the medicine cabinet is operatively connected to the radio frequency receiver and also to a wide area network, such as the Internet. The medicine cabinet has a display device that is operatively coupled with the computer and, in the form of a touch screen flat panel, the display device functions to interface the user and the medicine cabinet. The computer is configured to transmit information to the Internet and receives information from websites or additional computers that are coupled to the Internet. Information regarding medications and users as well as vital signs records of the users are stored either in the memory of the medicine cabinet or at a remote location via the connection to the Internet.
Other References
AIM (Automatic Identification Manufacturers), "Radio Frequency Identification--RFID, A basic primer", AIM (Automatic Identification Manufacturers) website, pp. 1-20, Sep. 28, 1999
AIM (Automatic Identification Manufacturers), "What is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), ", AIM (Automatic Identification Manufactureres) website, pp. 1-4, May 12, 2000
AIM (Automatic Identification Manufacturers), "Glossary of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) terms ", AIM (Automatic Identification Manufacturers) website, pp. 1-10, May 12, 2000
AIM (Automatic Identification Manufacturers), "Draft Paper on the Characteristics of RFID--Systems", AIM Frequency Forums AIM FF2000:001 Ver 1.0, pp. 1-23, Jul., 2000
William Borden, "Panasonic Debuts Web-Based Home Health Care Device", dailynews.yahoo.com, pp. 1-3, May 31, 2000
Stan Bernard, "Digital Doctoring", www.business 2.0, pp. 1-2, Aug. 22, 2000
CNNfn Digital Jam. Feb. 22, 2000 at 8:18 ET: "Talking Medicine Cabinet", Video Clip: CNN.avi
BBC Tomorrow's World, 07:30 P.M. GMT Mar. 1, 2000. Video Clip: BBC.avi
Fox News Feb. 29, 2000. Article "Pervasive Computing Gets Personal." Online version can be accessed at: "httr)://foxnews.com/vtech/022900/bathr)c.sml"
PC Comuting. "Inventing the Future," Feb. 2000
The Philaelphia Inquirer. Feb. 17, 2000. "Computers Could Take On More Chores without Being Told."
The Times (London). Feb. 23, 2000: Article "Computer in Bathroom will be micro?GP"
Canadian National Post, Apr. 3, 2000. "Online medicine makes the rounds."
ABC World News Tonight. Jul. 22, 1999. Feature "Cutting Edge" story for the evening news program. Video Clip: ABC-NEWS.av