US 11,817,207 B1
Medication inventory system including image based boundary determination for generating a medication tray stocking list and related methods
James W. McCracken, Jr., Lewisville, NC (US); Gregory J. Brendel, West Mifflin, PA (US); Patrick S. Connelly, Carnegie, PA (US); Marko Milojevic, Jamestown, NC (US); Jared O. Santibanez, Forney, TX (US); Juleo Amosah, Winston-Salem, NC (US); and Justin A. Krull, Weirton, WV (US)
Assigned to INMAR RX SOLUTIONS, INC., Ft. Worth, TX (US)
Filed by Inmar Rx Solutions, Inc., Ft. Worth, TX (US)
Filed on Nov. 17, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/528,797.
Application 17/528,797 is a continuation in part of application No. 17/217,991, filed on Mar. 30, 2021.
Application 17/217,991 is a continuation in part of application No. 16/793,098, filed on Feb. 18, 2020.
Application 16/793,098 is a continuation in part of application No. 16/704,573, filed on Dec. 5, 2019, granted, now 11,462,312.
Int. Cl. A61J 7/00 (2006.01); G06T 7/13 (2017.01); G16H 40/20 (2018.01); G16H 30/00 (2018.01); G16H 40/67 (2018.01)
CPC G16H 40/20 (2018.01) [A61J 7/0069 (2013.01); G06T 7/13 (2017.01); G16H 30/00 (2018.01); G16H 40/67 (2018.01); G06T 2207/10024 (2013.01)] 26 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A medication inventory system comprising:
a medication tray comprising a plurality of compartments for storing respective medications, the medication tray comprising a boundary wall defining a boundary outline of the medication tray, and the medication tray having a tray identifier associated therewith for identifying a desired medication stocking list of desired medications within the medication tray;
a plurality of boundary markers carried by the boundary wall of the medication tray; and
a mobile wireless communications device configured to
obtain a first image of the medication tray,
determine a number of the plurality of boundary markers from the first image, and when the determined number equals or exceeds a threshold number
apply an edge detection algorithm to the first image to identify the boundary outline of the medication tray based upon the plurality of boundary markers, and
generate a current medication stocking list of the medication tray based upon the identified boundary outline and the tray identifier from the first image, and
when the determined number does not exceed the threshold number,
obtain at least one second image of the medication tray,
determine an updated number of the plurality of boundary markers from the first and the at least one second images by combining the first and at least one second images based upon determining image pixel locations in each of the first and at least one second images, mapping the pixel locations of the at least one second image to a pixel coordinate space of the first image, and mapping the pixel locations of each of the first and at least one second images to a pixel coordinate space representative of the medication tray, and when the updated determined number equals or exceeds the threshold number
apply the edge detection algorithm to the combined first and at least one second images to identify the boundary outline of the medication tray based upon the plurality of boundary markers, and
generate the current medication stocking list of the medication tray based upon the identified boundary outline and the tray identifier from the first and at least one second images.