Labscape Goal: Simplify lab work by making information available - - PDF document

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Labscape

• Goal: Simplify lab work by making

information available where it is needed and by collecting and organizing data when it is created into a formal representation that others understand and process

Sub problems

• Where/When should information be

available?

• Where/when information is created?
• Need of formal representation
• Collaborative work

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Characteristics

• Instrumentation

– Materials (cells, tubes, other disposable materials) come and go. – Large number of heterogeneous devices, traditional computers. – Large scale environment – Labscape should be compatible with other similar type of labs.

• Cognitive overhead

– Error correction and detection should be avoided. – Lab workers do not desire additional responsibility to work in an instrumented environment. – Ambiguous interface is not desirable.

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• Collaborative work

– More than one person work on the same protocol at the same time. – Who’s going to work on what can only be completely determined while they perform an experiment.

• Challenges in recognizing progress of

experiment.

– It requires high precision technology to detect which sample in a batch a user is working on. – Samples involved in different steps looks identical. – Repetition of the similar operations challenges distinguishing the state of each sample.

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• Dynamic work flow

– Constraining users is not recommended. - They tend to reorder / add/ delete steps.

Experience

• UI precedes AI
• Abstract operations and formal

representation.

• Remaining problems.

– Integrating recognition technology. – Integrating sensors to current environment.

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Discussion

Recognition rich environment?

• Predict user’s location.
• Associate a user with steps.

– (user, device, step) – Touching/ Vision – Number of pipette tips thrown away

• Disambiguate state of each samples.
• Tracking materials

Combine input: X (dispensed material) Y (base material)

• utput:combined

material Z Throw away pipette tips Combine input: X (dispensed material)

• utput: combined material Z

Get the container W Open the lid of W Close the lid of W Z:Dispense X to Y Z:Dispense X to W Throw away pipette tips

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Dispense input: X

• utput: aspirated material W

Close the lid of X Open the lid of X Get the pipette tips W:aspirate from X with volume Z adjust pipepetter volume Z