Abstract: An article dispensing apparatus includes a carousel and a dispensing face including a dispensing orifice through which the articles are dispensed. The carousel includes plural holding sections for holding the articles to be dispensed and is rotationally movable. A controller controls an actuating unit to apply a force to the carousel to cause the carousel to move rotationally relative to the dispensing face when an instruction to dispense an article is received. When the carousel is moved relatively to the dispensing face so that one of its holding sections having an article therein is aligned with the dispensing orifice, the article is allowed to be dispensed through the dispensing orifice. A detector can detect when an article is within one of the holding sections aligned with the dispensing orifice and when the article is no longer within the one of the holding sections aligned with the dispensing orifice.

Abstract: A pill dispenser for dispensing pills of various sizes includes a pill storage section, a dispensing section located at a lower end of the storage section, an optical sensor, a memory and a controller. The dispensing section includes a device for adjusting a variable size cavity configured to adjust to various pill sizes. The controller adjusts the variable size cavity of the dispensing section depending on the individual pill specifications, and determines if the optical sensor has sensed presence of the pill to be dispensed.