Chromatography software compatible with touchscreen?

Dear all,

I don't know if I'm the only one thinking that it would be nice to have a touchscreen compatible user interface for our chromatography software (mostly UNICORN, I guess). I really don't like the space wasted by a desktop PC, keyboard plus mouse next to the FPLC unit. You can hide the keyboard and mouse somewhere but you have to pull it out again when you use them. You need to be careful not to spill any liquids on them, etc. I guess most of you know what I mean.

For those who don't have any space to waste, I guess it would be great if the software could be run via touchscreen only (I'm not necessarily advocating using any iPad or similar tablets, since I'm sure, those would be very "volatile" and disappear quickly). There are "normal" All-in-one tablet PCs running Windows where the software could be installed without any re-programming. All it would need is a small "facelift" which could enable the use with your fingertips.

We have tried it once with a wall-mounted resistive touchscreen (the ones you have to press a little bit) with the advantage that it could be used with gloves (wouldn't work with any fancy iPad-like tablets). The major (besides getting used to touching the screen) problem was that manipulating the software window was quite difficult (grabbing and moving the edges, corners or scroll bars of the window, clicking the small buttons, right clicks on the mouse) because the size of the elements and borders are optimized for a mouse arrow but not for fingers. Except for these issues, the space and spilled liquid problem was gone which I liked a lot.

So, my question is, does anyone know a solution for this and if I'm the only one who has too much time to think about such things? Would anyone be interested in having such a solution at some point? Maybe there is a generic software out there that could change the user interface of any Windows software which would quickly solve the problem.

Please let me know what you know or think about this.

Best regards,

Hüseyin

 

 

Posted on 16-Apr-2012 17:35 CEST
Hüseyin Besir

Hi Hüseyin,

I have to agree with you that this kind of software/interface would be usefull. With the thousands of units throughout the world that GE (to mention Unicorn) is selling I would assume that it is their job to make the software compatible and to offer the solution. We could all mention this to our local GE representatives and see if this is already in the RD pipe.

 

On my Tecan robots this exists and is compatible with ipad/iphone but I havn't installed it yet.

 

Renaud

Posted on 18-Apr-2012 9:31 CEST
Renaud Vincentelli

Hi,

I agree yhat is a very good idea. I'll try to ask representatives from Pharmacia here(sorry GE!!!) if they can work on it.

Mario

Posted on 21-Apr-2012 5:34 CEST
Mario Lebendiker

Hi Husseyn:

I sent an e-mail to my friend Luly that is the representant of GE here with your suggestion, and here is his answer:

 

 

Thank you for following to us the comment about the P4EU  comments on the need to us  touch screen software to run the AKTA systems.

We already implement the use of the "touch" screen and SS keyboard with integrate mouse  in the AKTA Process and UniFlux systems ( Filtration system) and is working well, especially for use in the "Clean Rooms"

I will follow your comments to our friend from GE  Richard Feike (cc on this mail) , maybe he have same inputs or same information that he can share with us ..

As you see, they are thinking on it, and I hope that we can get good news in the near future

Mario

Posted on 21-Apr-2012 9:35 CEST
Mario Lebendiker
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