Computer Vision for Infertility Treatment

在当今社会，不孕症比以往任何时候都更加普遍，是人口老龄化和相关社会经济问题的原因之一。在过去20年中，由于晚育的趋势，使用生育服务的人数急剧增加。经济和社会气候，以及对高级职业的追求，影响了相当多的妇女将生育推迟到30多岁和40岁出头。不幸的是，女性生殖能力在40岁时严重下降，流产的机会增加。加拿大社区健康调查报告称，约11-16%的加拿大妇女生育能力受损（2009-2010年数据）。 这意味着约有100万至150万18至44岁的妇女生育能力受损。辅助生殖技术（ART），特别是体外受精（IVF），缓解了不孕症问题，平均成功率为51%。 任何试管婴儿手术成功的一些关键因素是精子，胚胎及其发育的质量，以及卵巢对相关药物的反应。目前在IVF程序之前或期间手动进行上述质量和反应的评估。这种评估需要专业知识，因此费用昂贵，容易出错。该计划的目标是提供计算机视觉解决方案，以自动化和改进其中一些任务，从而提高不孕症治疗的成功率。

In today's society, infertility has become more common than ever before and is one of the causes of the ageing population and associated social-economic problems. In the last two decades the use of fertility services has increased dramatically as a result of the trend toward delayed childbearing. Economic and social climates, as well as pursuit of advanced careers, have influenced a significant number of women to defer childbearing to their late 30s and early 40s. Unfortunately, female reproductive capacity is severely reduced by the age of 40, with an increased chance of miscarriage. The Canadian Community Health Survey reports that about 11-16% of Canadian women suffer from impaired fertility (data for 2009-2010). This translates to about 1 to 1.5 million women with impaired fertility aged 18-44. Assisted reproductive technologies (ART), in particular In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), mitigate the infertility problem with an average success rate of 51%. Some of the critical factors in the success of any IVF procedure are the quality of the sperm, the embryos and their development, and the response of ovaries to the associated medication. Assessment of the above qualities and responses are currently performed manually prior to or during, the IVF procedure. Such assessment requires expert knowledge and is therefore expensive and prone to error. The objective of this program is to offer computer vision solutions to automate and improve some of these tasks, which would then lead to higher success of infertility treatments.