A portable pill dispenser device mountable with one or more pill cartridges that dispense pills by winding a pill strip that encloses pills between flexible films. The pills are enclosed in the pill strip and are released as the films of the pill strip are separated. The pill dispense device include actuators (e.g., motors) that cause winding cylinders in each of the pill cartridges to rotate, causing the pill strip to move towards an opening of each pill cartridge, separate the films of the pill strip, and release the pills through the opening. Indicia may be marked on at least one of the films to enable detection of the moving distance of the pill strip. The pill dispense device includes a sensor for detecting the indicia so that the movement of the films and release of the pills can be tightly controlled.
