US Patent 7028723 Apparatus and method for automatic prescription verification

An apparatus and method are used to perform the verification of a pharmaceutical prescription after it is filled but prior to shipment. Due to the high volume of mail/internet orders, the analysis is to be performed on the whole prescription, not on each individual pill of the prescription. The apparatus automatically gathers information about the pills contained in a pill bottle, including image and weight information, and incorporates a decision-making engine to decide whether the content of the pill bottle matches the prescription order.