BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a universal dropper device, in particular for vision- impaired people, suitable for providing a sound or voice indication of the count of the droplets of a liquid substance dispensed in a container; in particular, the device is suitable of the counting of the droplets of any medicinal substance contained in a bottle provided with a specific drop dispenser.

For the purposes of the present invention, the term "vision-impaired" is to be understood as meaning both a person totally free of any view, and any person having poor visual faculties, normally called "partially sighted patient". Independently from the use by blind persons, the dropper device according to the invention proves suitable for use also by disabled people, for which the counting of drops by means of a traditional dropper device may at times be difficult, or non- disabled people which must monitor their therapy (therapeutic adherence). STATE OF THE ART

In many fields, particularly in the medical field, is important to have a universal dropper device to allow the delivery of a liquid substance by the counting of a certain number of drops by a person without sight or disabled person, also providing suitable indications of the number of dispensed drop.

In certain cases, in particular in the medical field, it is necessary also deliver small metered amounts of a liquid substance, in the form of drops which is collected in a suitable container by any user according to specific indications, independently of the medicament or characteristics of the dispensed liquid.

To this purpose, the use of conventional pipettes or dropper bottles provided with a dedicated dropper is difficult if not impossible for a disabled person or without sight, with the risk of underdosing or of overdosing the medicinal substance.

Automatic devices have also been developed for counting the drops of infusions for injection into a patient; however such devices are not suitable for a personal use since they require the intervention of a qualified operator; consequently are completely unsuitable for use by a person without sight or a disabled person which must periodically assume metered quantities of a specific medicament.

A drop counter according to preamble of claim 1 is known for example from WO 2011/024182.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

General object of the present invention is to provide a dropper device for liquid substances, particularly but not exclusively suitable for blind or disabled people which allows a universal use and a controlled count of any number of drops of a liquid substance, in particular of a medicament by any user such as a person without sight or a disabled person, and at the same time it is able to provide a suitable indication of the number of drops counted, independently of the characteristics of the liquid or medicament delivered.

A further object of the invention is to provide a universal dropper device as referred to above, particularly suitable for the delivery of a metered quantity of a liquid substance or a medicament contained in its own normal dropper bottle, using a pipette or a drops dispenser of conventional type wherein the bottle is already provided with.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The above mentioned objects are obtained by a dropper device according to claim 1.

In general, the dropper device according to the invention comprises a container for collecting drops of any liquid substance dispensed by means of a conventional drops dispenser, in which the collection container of the drops is provided with a drop sensor of capacitive type positioned on the bottom, adapted to provide a detection signal of the individual drops which fall into the container; the capacitive sensor is preferably of the type with comb shaped electrodes arranged substantially coplanar or on a common surface.

The capacitive sensor is operatively connected to an electronic process unit, for example of the type comprising a microcontroller configured with a specific algorithm suitable to measure integral of detection signals emitted by the capacitive sensor, providing in turn a counting signal to a sound module configured with a transducer suitable to generate an acoustic indication, or voice information relating to mode of use of the dropper device and to the counted number of drops.

A suitable user interface allows to automatically start the counting procedure of drops and to adjust the volume. The process and counting unit optionally can be connected to a touch sensitive screen or other suitable programming module.

The user interface and the programming touch screen can preferably be equipped with suitable buttons for recognition of specific functions by a without sight people and/or Braille indicia.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The general features of dropper device according to the invention and some preferred embodiments will be described in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a block diagram of the dropper device;

Figure 2 shows a perspective view of a first embodiment of dropper device of Figure 1 in an operative condition;

Figure 3 is an exploded view of the dropper device of Figure 2; Figure 4 is a view of a particular capacitive sensor of the comb type used in the dropper device of figures 2 and 3;

Figure 5 is a flow diagram showing the operative mode of the dropper device of figures 2 and 3;

Figure 6 is a graph of the signals emitted by the capacitive sensor read by an electronic process unit;

Figure 7 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the dropper device; Figure 8 is a perspective view of a third embodiment of the dropper device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference to Figure 1 a description will be now given of the general features of the dropper device according to the invention.

The assembly of the dropper device comprises a container 10, however configured, to collect the drops 11 of a liquid medical such as contained in a bottle provided with a specific dropper 11, in which the drops that fall into the container 10 are progressively deposited on the bottom 14, as schematically indicated with 1 Γ.

The container 10 for collecting the drops 11 is provided on the bottom 14 of a zone sensitive to the fall of the drops, comprising a capacitive sensor 15 which exploits the changes of capacity for sensing the dripping of every single drop, and to emit a detection signal SR, for example a voltage signal V which peaks PK at each drop 11 which falls in the sensitive zone at the bottom 14 of the container 10 are detected by a process unit 16; the process unit 16 can be of any type configured with a suitable detection algorithm of the peaks PK of the detection signal SR.

The capacitive sensor 15 can be configured with two electrodes coplanar or placed on a common surface; the capacitive sensor 15 is positioned at the bottom 14 of the container 10, in a respective housing depending on the specific form and on the characteristics of the container itself.

As previously mentioned, the capacitive sensor 15 may be anyway configured suitable for the intended use. By way of example, the capacitive sensor 15 may be a comb type capacitor read by a module of the type of CapSense PSOC Cypress Semiconductor Corp. USA. The process unit 16 comprises an algorithm capable of recognizing the peaks of the drop detection signals SR generated by the capacitive sensor 15, read by a module of the type of CapSense Psoc Cypress Semiconductor Corp. USA, and to generate output count signals SC; the process unit 16 for example can consist of a microcontroller available on the market, such as the microcontroller cy8c58881ti- lp097 family of PSoc Cypress family comprising a module capsense 27, produced and sold by Cypress Semiconductor Corp. USA or other equivalent microcontroller. Always with reference to Figure 1, the process unit 16 is operatively connected to a sound module 18 of any type available on the market, for example module sound module2 (SOMO-Π)" of 4d systems, able to read audio files from a memory card on which can be recorded voice instructions, alarms and other, and emitting sound signals or voice signals SO/SV for counting drops collected in the container 10 by means of a suitable loudspeaker 19.

The process unit 16 is also provided with a user interface 20 comprising control keys, for example the keys 21 and 22 respectively to increase, decrease the volume of sound or voice signals generated by the audio module 18, and a third key 23 for the starting of a guide procedure for the user and start counting of the drops.

With the reference 24 moreover has been shown a possible touch screen, while with the reference 25 designates a power supply source for the various modules that compose the dropper device according to the invention.

Reference 12 indicates a wireless communication module (wire-less) operatively connected to the microcontroller 16 of the process unit, capable of communicating with external devices, such as for example smart telephones, pc, tablet or gateway mainly for monitoring the adherence to the therapy of the patient.

Considering the use of the device dropper by blind persons, the keys 21, 22 and the user interface 23 may be differently configured, or provided with Braille marks, in order to allow their recognition by the same vision-impaired people. Finally with 26 has been indicated a possible light source, for example a LED, to provide for instance a light indication, to partially sighted patient, or other user.

With reference now to the figures 2, 3 and 4 there is described a first preferred embodiment of the dropper device according to the invention; in the aforesaid figures the same reference numbers used in Figure 1 have been used to indicate similar or equivalent parts.

As shown in Figures 2 and 3 the dropper device comprises a cone-shaped container 10, or of any other shape as long as configured with a conical inner surface 10', which from the upper opening 10" diverges toward the bottom 14 of the container 10.

The conical shape of the inner conical surface 10' of the container 10, diverging toward the bottom 14, is extremely useful in drop counting, since it prevents the same falling drops to adhere to the inner surface by altering in this way both the counting and the metered amount of the liquid substance or medicine to be assumed by a patient.

Always with reference to the example under consideration, the container 10 is positionable on a support base 28 consisting of a box closed by a bottom cover 29, containing an electronic card 30 with all the components of the electric circuit of the dropper device.

The upper face of the support base 28 of the container 10 as shown in Figure 3, is configured with a seat 31 provided with a conical edge 32 for receiving and stable positioning of the container 10 by vision-impaired people during the drop counting, The correct positioning of the container 10 in the seat 31 can be improved by providing the seat 31 with a conical protrusion 33 insertable into a corresponding central cavity of the bottom 14 of the container 10, or vice versa.

In order to maintain a correct and centered positioning of the container 10 into the seat 31, the latter and the bottom 14 of the container 10 can be provided with hooking means both of the magnetic and mechanical type, for example in the form of one or more projections on the conical surface 32 and corresponding notches on the peripheral edge of the bottom 14 of the container, or vice versa.

In the case of figures 2 and 3 the base 14 of the container is magnetically attached to the seat 31 of the support base 28 by permanent magnets; for example by providing a magnet 34 in one or more positions of planar seat 31, with a pole facing the flat lower surface of the bottom 14 of the container, and a corresponding magnet 35 with pole of opposite polarity to that of the magnet 34 on the lower surface of the bottom 14.

With reference now to Figure 4 there is described a preferred embodiment of the capacitive sensor 15, not excluding other possible solutions.

In the case shown in Figure 4, the capacitive sensor 15 is of the comb type; in particular the sensor 15 comprises a disk 38 of electrically non-conductive material and forming the dielectric of a capacitor, and two flat electrodes in the form of a comb 36, 37 coplanar arranged or on a same positioning surface, in which the teeth 36' of the electrode 36 penetrate between the teeth 37' of the other electrode 37, kept at a certain distance from each other.

From tests carried out it has been ascertained that the performance and therefore the sensitivity of dropper device according to the invention may vary as a function of the shape and characteristics of the electrodes of sensor 15. Good results were obtained with a capacitive sensor of the type shown, in which the width LI of the conductive paths of the two sensors and the distance L2 between the paths were comprised in a range between 0.2 and 10 mm, according to the geometrical configuration of the electrodes 36, 37; as an alternative to comb configuration of the electrodes 36 and 37 a different configuration could be provided, for example of the spiral type, in concentric circles or of another type, provided that it is suitable to provide the required sensitivity and performance.

Figure 5 shows an illustrative flow chart of the operative mode of the dropper device of Figure 2, and of the various voice instructions supplied to the user.

Step FI: initially is required to put the container 10 on the support base 28; this operation is facilitated by the particular configuration of the bottom 14 of the container 10 and of the respective housing seat 31 of the support base 28.

Step F2: in this second step a power key of the device is pushed for the necessary electrical supply. Step F3: acting on the keys 21 and 22 it is possible to adjust the volume of sound or voice count signals generated by the audio module 18 and emitted by the loudspeaker 19.

Step F4: during this step the user is asked to lean a hand on the container 10 and to keep it firmly in its own seat, during the pouring of the drops 11.

Step F5: at this point the command to press the key 23 is given, starting the guided counting procedure. Step F6: during this step the drops of the medicament, or liquid substance must be poured into the container 10, causing them to fall on the bottom 14, thus beginning to next step.

Step F7: beginning the drop counting.

Step F8: during this step sampling occurs, by the process unit, of the detection signal SR generated by the changes of the capacitance of the capacitive sensor 15.

Step F9: during this step the process unit detects the peak PK of the signal SR detecting the dropping of a drop 11 in the container 10.

Step F10: a feedback signal is sent for the sampling and the detection of the peak PK of the detection signal repeatedly generated by the capacitive sensor and the counting of the drops.

Phase Fl l : upon reaching the final count of the prescribed number of drops, a sound signal SR, or an indication voice SV is emitted, to inform the user of the count end and the number of drops dispensed into the collection container 10.

According to a preferential embodiment, the process unit 16 and audio module 18 are arranged in a housing box 28 configured with a seat 31 to support the drop container 10; and in which the drop container 10 is removably positioned on the support seat 31, and is cup shaped to allow a direct assumption of the drops dispensed in the container 10, by the vision-impaired people.

The graph in Figure 6 shows the change of the voltage V to the electrodes of the capacitive sensor, and the type of integral measurement in which the increase in the number of drops falling over time on the bottom of the container 10, corresponds to an increase of the overall capacitance of the sensor 14, proportional to the voltage V of the sampled signal SR.

In short, the system initiate the counting starting from a base voltage in the absence of drops on the bottom of the container 10, by detecting a voltage peak PKl to fall of the first droplet; subsequently there is a consequent increase in the base voltage and the detection of a new voltage peak PK2 to fall of the second drop, and so on until the peak Pkn, by means of a measurement system of the integral type, up to the end of the count.

Figure 7 shows by way of example of a second embodiment of the dropper device according to the invention for vision-impaired people; while in the case of Figure 2 the container 10 with the capacitive sensor 15 and the support base 18, containing the electronic process unit, constitute an assembly formed by two separate parts which are structurally and functional co-related with each other, in the case of Figure 7 the container 10 is configured in the form of a cup, integrated with a base 14 for housing the capacitive sensor of the process unit and the various electrical components of the device. Figure 8 shows a third possible embodiment of the dropper device according to the invention in which the same reference numbers of the previous figures have been used to indicate similar or equivalent parts.

In the case of Figure 8, the device is in the form of a spoon whose front side concave, corresponding to the container 10 for the collection of the drops is again provided with a housing bottom 10"' for the capacitive sensor 15; in an equivalent manner in the previous cases, the electric circuit and the components of the process unit are housed in a casing 28' of the handle of the spoon.

The embodiments of Figures 7 and 8 operate in a manner entirely similar to that of dropper device of Figure 2.