Integration of Internet of Things technology into a pill dispenser

The main purpose of this paper is to present how a developing technology, such as the Internet of Things, can be used for the benefit of people. With the help of this technology, a system is implemented that can retrieve information received from several pill distributors, to store them in an online database, so that they can be analyzed later. It is also designed to send alerts in real time, if some pills were not taken by the patients at the prescribed interval. The system is designed to be used individually by users who need to check if a patient took its medication at home or in a hospital, but also to be used in creating a network of pill dispensers supervised by one administrator. In this way the exposure time to a virus, in case of a pandemic, is minimized. The embedded system is based on an ESP8266 microcontroller, that allows online remote access to the pill dispenser's status. The information about the pills is stored in a cloud storage, where it can be processed through a variety of applications. Several ESP8266 microcontroller can be connected, obtaining a network of pill dispensers, which will be monitored via IoT. The status of each pill dispenser can be viewed in real time using a website, this will contain valuable data on how patients receive treatment.