Computer Vision for Infertility Treatment

在当今社会，不孕不育比以往任何时候都更加普遍，是人口老龄化和相关的社会经济问题的原因之一。在过去的二十年里，由于推迟生育的趋势，生育服务的使用急剧增加。经济和社会气候，以及对高级职业的追求，影响了相当多的女性将生育推迟到30岁末和40岁出头。不幸的是，女性的生殖能力在40岁时会严重下降，流产的机会也会增加。加拿大社区健康调查报告称，约有11-16%的加拿大妇女生育能力受损(2009-2010年数据)。这意味着大约有100万至150万年龄在18-44岁的生育力受损的妇女。辅助生殖技术(ART)，特别是体外受精(IVF)，可以缓解不孕问题，平均成功率为51%。影响体外受精成功的关键因素包括精子的质量、胚胎及其发育以及卵巢对相关药物的反应。对上述质量和反应的评估目前是在试管受精程序之前或期间手动进行的。这种评估需要专业知识，因此费用昂贵，容易出错。该项目的目标是提供计算机视觉解决方案，使其中一些任务自动化并加以改进，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.