Patent ID: 7822510

Claim:
A system comprising: (a) a controller; (b) an electrowetting droplet microactuator electronically coupled to the controller and comprising electrodes arranged in droplet transport paths for conducting droplet operations including droplet transport, droplet dispensing, and droplet splitting, the electrodes comprising a subset of electrodes characterized in that all electrodes in the subset are coupled to a common electrical output; and (c) a display device displaying a user interface electronically coupled to the controller, the user interface producing a virtual representation of the electrowetting droplet microactuator that graphically illustrates virtual electrodes arranged in virtual droplet transport paths corresponding to the droplet transport paths in the electrowetting droplet microactuator; wherein: (i) the system is programmed and configured to permit a user to effect the droplet operations mediated by electrodes of the droplet transport paths by mousing over and/or selecting the virtual electrodes of the user interface; (ii) mousing over a virtual electrode corresponding to an electrode from the subset results in highlighting of all virtual electrodes corresponding to electrodes in the subset; and (iii) selecting a virtual electrode corresponding to an electrode from the subset results in activation of all electrodes in the subset.