What do you mean exactly? I gave thought to incorporating some sort of automatic test strip loading device at first. Though practically it wouldn’t be very feasible (I don’t think) in terms of size. The likely choice would be a rotating drum that contained a number of pre-loaded strips, or possibly a some sort of clip design that fed test strips like a magazine. It would probably take much more development than I can offer alone to accomplish. Also keep in mind that test strips are very sensitive and have to be housed in a proper storage container so that they maintain accuracy.
A lancet device that auto-loaded new lancets would be a possibility since I believe there would be enough room inside the meter to incorporate a drum to load new lancets. But again, that was eliminated due to practicality- if you have test strips separate then lancets aren’t much more to carry. The basic premise of the design was to make everything easily fit into a case that would carry other things like an insulin pen etc.
Thanks for the input, any other ideas are welcome.
@Katherine
Very cool, I was having trouble finding pen shape designs, though I was sure they existed somewhere. I agree that the light is definitely something to incorporate. I knew that if it was something that appealed to many I could always add it without changing the model (I’ll do a render of what it may look like and post it here).
I’m also with you on the fact that technology is growing and people expect more with new products. This is good because it would help justify the overall size of the meter design. I mean if all it did was give you a reading and store them, the size would probably be expected to be smaller. Fortunately I left room to expand on the technology side of things given that it would have plenty of room, battery life, and a decent display. What sort of additional features would you expect to be useful? I know that I have my own opinions, but I’d like to hear what others think.
I mentioned Bluetooth for connecting with a smartphone to send and receive data. Perhaps a smartphone application that would track results, suggest meal plans, or send data to a doctor. This would compete with the OneTouch UltraSmart which has similar features built in, making it rather large. Simply uploading the data to a smartphone (which are vastly increasing in popularity) would eliminate those hassles and offer a much more expansive platform given all the things a modern smartphone has/ can do. I can see younger diabetics taking to this idea since they practically all have smartphones. Thoughts?