Touchscreen Lab

For a while now I have been musing on what would a next-generation Lab Information Management Systems (LIMS) user interface could look like. Thought of touchscreen interfaces and ad-hoc text mining have filled my brain, but I have not yet been able to get a clear enough picture to start work on such a project.

Enter the iPhone and iPod touch. How cool would it be to develop a clean and robust LIMS application for them? How would you take advantage of the touchscreen? How easy would filling out notes or changes to protocol templates be with the on-screen keyboard? How would the screen size limit you design process? How effective would it be to integrate SMS for alerts for stop-watch and protocol coordination?

Plus what better excuse can I make to purchase one of these bad boys? Anyway, here is a quick mock-up of the type of interface I envision. Enjoy!