Taking a daily birth control pill is often a struggle for most women. With modern women being more busy than ever, it's way too easy to forget something as simple as taking a pill.
Although there are mobile apps that send reminders to smartphones that help people remember their medications, there's no guarantee that those reminders get heeded. That's where Oviary comes in: it's a birth control case that knows if it's been opened on any given day and sends alerts when it hasn't.
"Our technology fits into the lives of modern women on the Pill," states the Kickstarter page for Oviary. "It can store all the different shapes and sizes of blister packs out there. The device is connected wirelessly so it can notify users via a text message or app notification when a dose is missed."
Birth control, which already comes in blister packs with days marked out on it, is a natural fit for a technological product like Oviary. In the U.S. alone, more than 10 million women take birth control. Missing even one pill raises the likelihood of pregnancy, so if there was a better reminder system, Oviary claims that women could save over $750 million in health care costs for pregnancy tests, co-payments and Plan B.
Oviary works with a custom app that connects to your home Wi-Fi account. The user first places their blister pack of birth control pills for the month inside the case. After setting up the system, the case — which has a 24-hour alarm system — shows a visual representation of pills taken and pills forgotten. If the case goes unopened after a certain amount of time, the user receives a text message. If a user misses a pill, after 24 hours, information is sent via text on how to proceed to stay protected from pregnancy.
Not only that, but Oviary also reminds women to refill their birth control prescriptions on time. Most importantly, though, Oviary is portable and can travel and operate anywhere.
As Oviary's Kickstarter points out, there haven't been many changes to the packaging of birth control pills in over 50 years.
"We want to make every user of the pill a perfect user," states the Kickstarter page. "We want to save millions of women the anxiety of pregnancy tests and Plan B every year. We want to make a dent in the billions of dollars we spend every year on unintended pregnancies. Oviary wants to ally with birth control users and their partners worldwide."
Those who are interested in donating to Oviary and getting it on the ground level can do so at the project's official Kickstarter page.
Via Fast Company
