We present the  eLabBench  -- a tabletop system supporting experimental research in the biology laboratory. The  eLabBench  allows biologists to organize their experiments around the notions of  activities  and  resources , and seamlessly roam information between their office computer and the digital laboratory bench. At the bench, biologists can pull digital resources, annotate them, and interact with hybrid (tangible + digital) objects such as racks of test tubes. This paper focuses on the  eLabBench's  design, and presents three main contributions: First, based on observations we highlight a set of characteristics digital benches should support in a laboratory. Second, we describe the  eLabBench , including a simple implementation of activity-based computing for tabletop environments, with support for activity roaming, note-taking, and hybrid objects. Third, we present preliminary feedback of the  eLabBench  based on a ongoing deployment in a biology laboratory, and propose a design space definition for the design of single-user, work-oriented, tabletop systems.
['Aurélien Tabard', 'Juan David Hincapié-Ramos', 'Morten Esbensen', 'Jakob E. Bardram']
The eLabBench: an interactive tabletop system for the biology laboratory