About
A reading tool, and nothing more than that.
Certificates of Analysis are written for people who already know how to read them. Lab Readout exists to close that gap without pretending to be a laboratory.
The problem
A COA is a dense technical document: identifiers that tie it to a batch, analytical methods named by acronym, results stated against specifications, and a signature block. Somebody who has not read a hundred of them cannot easily tell which parts are measurements, which are the issuer's conclusions, and which fields are simply absent.
The absent fields are the hard part. A document missing a lot number looks very similar to one that has it — until you know to look. Most tools that read documents will happily fill that blank with something plausible, and a plausible lot number is worse than no lot number.
What we built instead
Lab Readout organizes what a document reports and shows you where each value came from. Its most important behaviour is what it does when it cannot answer: it says so, specifically, and distinguishes “not on this page” from “cannot be compared” from “no check was attempted”.
The methodology note sets out the whole method, including its limits, and the example readout shows every one of those states on one page.
Principles
Four rules we build against.
- Show the source
- Any value the readout states carries the page of the exact file it was read from. A claim you cannot check against the document is not worth making.
- Name the gap
- “Not located in this upload” is a useful answer. Filling a blank field with a plausible guess is the most damaging thing a tool like this could do.
- Keep the categories apart
- The original document, the extracted information, the AI explanation and any issuer-record check are four different things, and the interface never blurs them.
- Refuse the wrong question
- No dosing, no treatment advice, no patient-specific conclusions, no verdict on whether a material is safe for a person. Those are not gaps in the roadmap.
Who publishes this
The operator relationship.
Lab Readout is an educational reading tool. It is not a laboratory, and it is not an independent testing or certification authority.
We would rather state that at the top of a page than have somebody discover it later. A tool that helps you read a supplier's paperwork should be clear about who is offering the tool, and a vendor-sponsored reading aid is not an independent testing authority no matter how carefully it is built.
The legal operating entity and its registration details will be published here before launch. They are not in place yet, and we are not going to invent them in the meantime.
Read your Certificate of Analysis.
Upload a laboratory document to organize its reported results, explain the terminology, and identify information that needs clarification.