Medicine sorting apparatus

A medicine sorting apparatus, comprising:

• an identifying part including:
• a photographing part for photographing each of medicines;
• a binarization processing part for performing a binarization process on an image photographed by the photographing part to create a binarized image;
• and
• an identification processing part having a first identification processing function of identifying at least a direction of each of the medicines based on the binarized image;
• and
• a storing part for storing the medicines so that each of the medicines can be taken from the storing part by arranging the medicines in the storing part in a state that a storing area defined for each of the medicines at the time of storing the medicines is associated with identification information of each of the medicines,
• wherein the medicine sorting apparatus treats each of the medicines identified by the first identification processing function as a storing target medicine.

A medicine sorting apparatus, comprising:

• an identifying part which can identify a direction, a posture and characteristics such as a shape, a size, a type and an expiration date of medicines;
• a storing part having a plurality of containers arranged in multiple stages, the containers being capable of storing the medicines so that each of the stored medicines can be taken from each of the plurality of the containers;
• a transferring part for transferring one of the medicines to one of the containers through a gap between the plurality of the containers;
• and
• an operation control part for controlling the storing part and the transferring part to perform a storing operation for associating a storing area, in which the one of the medicines is to be stored, with identification information of each of the medicines to transfer the one of the medicines from the identifying part to the one of the containers in which the storing area has been defined and store the one of the medicines in the one of the containers and to perform a dispensing operation for dispensing the one of the medicines from the storing part based on a prescription instruction.

A medicine sorting apparatus, comprising:

• an identifying part which can identify a direction, a posture and characteristics such as a shape, a size, a type and an expiration date of medicines and has a first barcode reader;
• a storing part having a plurality of containers arranged in multiple stages, the containers being capable of storing the medicines so that each of the stored medicines can be taken from each of the plurality of the containers;
• a transferring part which can transfer one of the medicines to one of the containers through a gap between the plurality of the containers and has a second barcode reader;
• and
• an operation control part which can control the identifying part, the storing part and the transferring part to decide the one of the medicines to be dispensed from information on a medicine type, a storing area and an expiration date associated with each of the medicines stored in the containers based on prescription information and perform a dispensing operation for dispensing the one of the medicines when medicine type information of the one of the medicines to be dispensed which is obtained by the first barcode reader or the second barcode reader matches medicine type information based on the prescription information.