Structure · Make · Mechanics
How the LIVIT medication-adherence device is built and how it works. At its core it's a miniature scale — a load cell that detects the weight change when a pill is removed. Engineered with Porticos.
1 · Structure & components
The device is a low-profile disc that couples to a standard pill bottle. Inside, a beam-style load cell does the sensing; a housing sits on one end of the cell and a baseplate on the other — and the two must never touch, so the cell can read a clean weight. A foam-tape liner lets it seat flush against an uneven bottle base.
Component stack
| Component | Function |
|---|---|
| Beam-style load cell | The core sensor — measures the small weight change as pills are removed (a miniature scale). |
| Housing + baseplate | Two-part body across the load cell; the halves must never touch so the cell reads cleanly. |
| PCB | Microprocessor, memory, and radio on a compact board. |
| Battery + pull-tab insulator | Coin cell, activated by pulling the tab at the pharmacy; sized to last the prescription. |
| Foam-tape liner | Compliant top layer that seats the device flush on an uneven bottle base. |
| Transmitter | Bluetooth / Wi-Fi / 4G to phone, base station, and cloud. |
| Unique ID + auth | Per-unit device ID; fingerprint / barcode activation ties the device to the right patient. |
2 · The make — materials & manufacturing
The design goal was a sensor cheap and small enough to be disposable — applied at the pharmacy and lasting exactly as long as the prescription. Two cosmetic models were tooled (SharkDreams- and LIVIT-branded), sized for a "medium" 38 mm-diameter bottle, with a foam-tape liner sourced to handle uneven bottle surfaces.
- Disposable economics — low part count, single-use lifecycle.
- One core, many housings — the sensing core also explored as lid, cap, and tape/ring forms.
- Tooled cosmetic models — production-look housings, not just breadboards.
Manufacturing
Full and partial manufacturing was pursued across three countries as the design matured:
Product design & mechanical engineering: Porticos (load cell, housing/baseplate, cosmetic models). Board work with VieMetrics; secured-chip exploration with Microsoft / Avnet (Azure Sphere).
3 · The mechanics — how it works
Sensing logic — a miniature scale
- Continuous weighing — the load cell reads the bottle's weight; a drop equal to one pill confirms a dose was actually removed, not just that the bottle was touched.
- Missed / over-dose logic — weight-change events are compared to the prescribed schedule; a missed dose or an over-utilization is flagged.
- Exposure & tamper — environmental and unexpected-access events are flagged.
- Authentication — pull-tab activation plus fingerprint / barcode verification tie the device to the right patient at the pharmacy.
- Power discipline — the device idles between events to hold the ~40-day battery.
The data loop
Each weight-change event follows one path: the load cell detects it, the device stores it locally, the transmitter syncs to the cloud, and the platform notifies the right person — patient, pharmacist, or caregiver — the moment adherence slips.
4 · The Patch — vitals wearable (prototype)
Prototype · never deployed A companion skin-worn patch ("SharkSkin") was engineered to read the vitals a medication can affect — so a provider could see not just adherence but the patient's response. Developed by VieMetrics (an NC State University PhD team); used only in internal testing — no commercial or clinical deployment, and the device IP belongs to VieMetrics.
Sensing modalities
Core electronics
- Power controller + regulator; rechargeable ~40 mAh battery with monitor and charging.
- Microcontroller + Bluetooth Low Energy (pre-certified module).
- PCB assembly with a documented bill of materials and part placement.
Construction
- Flexible polyimide substrate with flex regions; system-on-chip.
- Photodiode + LEDs for pulse oximetry; ECG electrode openings; double-sided adhesive / non-woven skin layer.
Measured variables
Named components (from the BOM)
SoC + Bluetooth Low Energy · ADS1299-4 ECG front end · MMA8653 accelerometer · TMP007 thermopile (skin temperature) · SI1143 photodiode + LED driver with 660 / 850 / 940 nm LEDs (pulse oximetry) · TPS78230 voltage regulator · BQ51050b wireless charge controller · lithium-polymer battery · Ag/AgCl electrodes, encased in silicone.
How it works — use case
- Patient takes medicine from the SharkDreams pill bottle.
- The base station recognizes the dose and tells the patient's phone, which sets a "Pill Taken" flag.
- If the patient is highly active or out of range, the phone pings the patch again in 5 minutes.
- The patch records vitals for 1 minute, every 30 minutes, until vitals are captured three times.
A provisional patent (720-5, 2017) covered the patch; it later expired. The earlier LIVIT trademark (2017) was abandoned in 2019.
Source documents
Every detail on this page traces to original engineering documents:
- LIVIT Design Review v2 — device internals, dimensions, load cell, PCB, battery, foam-tape liner.
- LIVIT Cosmetic Models v2 — tooled production housings (Porticos).
- Ideation Report v1 — patch concept art, block diagrams, suggested BOM & cost.
- PATCH Spec Sheet v0.0 ("Shark Skin Patch") — sensing modalities, core electronics, PCB, embedded software.
- 720-5 PROV (Oct 2017) — provisional patent for the patch (later expired).
- Patch comparison spec — the vitals feature matrix (ECG, EEG, EMG, EOG, GSR, spirometry, SpO₂, BP, activity…).
Source path: SEC / LIVIT MFT / LIVIT MFT DOCS/