abscape is a smart environment that we designed to improve the experience of people who work in a cell biology laboratory. Our goal in creating it was to simplify laboratory work by making information available where it is needed and by collecting and organizing data where and when it is created into a formal representation that others can understand and process. By helping biologists produce a more complete record of their work with less effort, Labscape is designed to foster improved collaboration in conjunction with increased individual efficiency and satisfaction. Many of the smart environments that the ubiquitous computing research community has built so far have served primarily as platforms for technology evaluation. [1] [2] [3] [4] These environments are crucial to the research enterprise because they provide a sandbox in which to safely test and evaluate experimental technologies. In contrast, our emphasis on meeting an authentic user community's rigorous requirements has produced insights into the design approaches, evaluation methods, and implementation challenges associated with creating usable, extensible environments. These insights in turn help guide and influence our technology-based research. A cell biology experiment involves observing how cell states change in response to some form of stimulus or treatment. Experiment outcomes usually take the form of charts or images associated with measurements corresponding to cell state features. For example, the image in Figure 1 indicates the effect on gene expression (ribonucleic acid, or RNA, production) that 10 different drug candidates had on otherwise similar cells. Columns correspond to the cells treated by different drug candidates, and rows correspond to gene activity expressed in the form of molecular concentrations. The darkness of the band at each row-column intersection indicates a specific gene's activity level under the drug candidate's influence. A technique called gel electrophoresis, in which researchers use an electric field to sort molecules by size, produces the readout. When genes produce different-sized RNA molecules, this technique can help discriminate between them. In the common biochemical procedure called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), genetic material (RNA, in this case) is amplified (repeatedly duplicated) so we can detect the molecules' presence by using the electrophoresis technique. Thus, the entire experiment consists of
Labscape REF is a smart environment for cell biologists.
Labscape: A Smart Environment for the Cell Biology Laboratory
IEEE Pervasive Comput.
IEEE Pervasive Comput.
Computer Science