3 ms·

Probably some grad student pipets a precise quantity of scorpian semen onto a slide, perhaps with a dye to aid the process, and manually counts the number of sp

Probably some grad student pipets a precise quantity of scorpian semen onto a slide, perhaps with a dye to aid the process, and manually counts the number of sperm with a microscope. Human sperm tests are done using a similar procedure depending on what you are looking for.

sillysaurusx 6y ago
Fascinating; apparently you can perform a sperm count test on yourself with nothing more than a microscope: https://www.hellomotherhood.com/article/94302-read-clearblue-pregnancy-tests/ https://www.hellomotherhood.com/article/94302-read-clearblue... and a spreadsheet: https://web.archive.org/web/20070224203309/http://www.fertilityformen.com/download/sar.xls https://web.archive.org/web/20070224203309/http://www.fertil... There's a high-quality video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9_XkaXCXqc&ab_channel=AdvancedFertilityCenterofChicago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9_XkaXCXqc&ab_channel=Advan... I'm just surprised it's theoretically possible to do it yourself. Tests are upwards of $100.
- jdc 6y ago
  Hey, this is great info. Any machine learning engineers have a bunch of spare time on their hands?
  - sillysaurusx 6y ago
    Interesting line of thinking. I guess you could pipe a microscope's video feed into a YOLO model and do a count. The hard part would be making it cost effective. Legacy (YC S19) seems to be capturing this market: https://www.givelegacy.com/ https://www.givelegacy.com/ $200 is still a hefty price though.
  - tzs 6y ago
    There are automated sperm sample analyzers already, that give sperm concentration, motility (broken down by rapid, slow, and non), morphology, velocity, and more. Here's a promotional video from 2008 from a maker of such devices [1]. Here's a 2015 video from them showing a newer model [2]. I'm not sure how they actually work. Given the age it probably isn't machine learning. The same company also sells a home test kit, under the name Yo, which might use machine learning [3]. It uses your smart phone camera. There is also a PC/Mac version that looks like it includes its own camera. $69.95 for either kit, $45.95 for refills for the consumables for 2 tests, $89.95 for 4 tests. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krakvOT-7xI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krakvOT-7xI [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukIns4rPgHw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukIns4rPgHw [3] https://www.yospermtest.com/how-it-works/ https://www.yospermtest.com/how-it-works/
- darkerside 6y ago
  Not that surprising. Doing my own is one thing. For counting someone else's sperm, $100 seems pretty low.

sillysaurusx 6y ago

Fascinating; apparently you can perform a sperm count test on yourself with nothing more than a microscope: https://www.hellomotherhood.com/article/94302-read-clearblue-pregnancy-tests/ https://www.hellomotherhood.com/article/94302-read-clearblue... and a spreadsheet: https://web.archive.org/web/20070224203309/http://www.fertilityformen.com/download/sar.xls https://web.archive.org/web/20070224203309/http://www.fertil... There's a high-quality video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9_XkaXCXqc&ab_channel=AdvancedFertilityCenterofChicago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9_XkaXCXqc&ab_channel=Advan... I'm just surprised it's theoretically possible to do it yourself. Tests are upwards of $100.

jdc 6y ago
Hey, this is great info. Any machine learning engineers have a bunch of spare time on their hands?
- sillysaurusx 6y ago
  Interesting line of thinking. I guess you could pipe a microscope's video feed into a YOLO model and do a count. The hard part would be making it cost effective. Legacy (YC S19) seems to be capturing this market: https://www.givelegacy.com/ https://www.givelegacy.com/ $200 is still a hefty price though.
- tzs 6y ago
  There are automated sperm sample analyzers already, that give sperm concentration, motility (broken down by rapid, slow, and non), morphology, velocity, and more. Here's a promotional video from 2008 from a maker of such devices [1]. Here's a 2015 video from them showing a newer model [2]. I'm not sure how they actually work. Given the age it probably isn't machine learning. The same company also sells a home test kit, under the name Yo, which might use machine learning [3]. It uses your smart phone camera. There is also a PC/Mac version that looks like it includes its own camera. $69.95 for either kit, $45.95 for refills for the consumables for 2 tests, $89.95 for 4 tests. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krakvOT-7xI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krakvOT-7xI [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukIns4rPgHw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukIns4rPgHw [3] https://www.yospermtest.com/how-it-works/ https://www.yospermtest.com/how-it-works/
darkerside 6y ago
Not that surprising. Doing my own is one thing. For counting someone else's sperm, $100 seems pretty low.