Challenge
Helping Increase Pregnancy in Livestock Through a Smart Microscope
Livestock reproduction from local farming to big industry factory farms is a slow and tedious process. Top notch scientists have state of the art technology and tools that can track semen, but it has to go back and forth between the farm and the lab, which wastes a lot of time and resources. A more condensed and low grade sperm control technology would be very beneficial for livestock farmers. Controlling semen quality can increase pregnancy success rate up to 20%, bringing more profits to the farm owners and reducing pollution to the environment.
iSperm comprises of a tiny microscope that enlarges the image of the contents of a few drops of semen inside a pipette, lit by a backlight. The light beams the moving image to the iPad camera, and then algorithms analyse the sample for total sperm count and motility, or how fast sperm can swim. It's helping increase pregnancy success rates of livestock by up to 20% and is a cheaper alternative to the larger, more expensive microscopes that are currently used.