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BenchMate
BenchMate is a hands-free voice assistant for anyone following a lab protocol with gloved or full hands. In the lab, stopping to read the next step or write down a number means taking gloves off and losing your place. Many people end up scribbling values on a glove or a paper towel, which is where mistakes creep in. With BenchMate you just talk. It reads each step aloud, and you can say "next", "go back", "say that again" or ask what speed a spin was. When you call out a reading ("sample two, 245 nanograms per microliter"), a change from the plan or a note, BenchMate logs it and reads it back straight away so a mishearing is caught on the spot. It runs timers and announces when they finish, without talking over you. "Scratch that" or "no, 254 not 245" corrects a mistake, and the old value stays crossed out in the record. When you say "I'm done", it builds a notebook entry with tables of readings, changes, notes, a step log, an audit trail and the full transcript. The app, not the AI, holds the record: the assistant changes it only through defined actions, and the notebook is assembled directly from what you logged. Lab data stays in your browser. BenchMate is built on AssemblyAI's Voice Agent API: real-time speech recognition tuned to each protocol's vocabulary, natural turn-taking, interruption, and tool calling. It also uses AssemblyAI's LLM Gateway to turn pasted protocols into steps. It includes a two-minute practice run, so anyone can try it at their desk.
30 Sep 2026
