The following prenatal video footage depicts human embryos at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, and 7 weeks following fertilization. Beyond three weeks following fertilization, no post-implantation video footage used by the Education Resource Fund (ERF) is animated. It is entirely endoscopic (augmented by minimal sonographic scans). ERF uses no imagery created by artificial intelligence (AI). The authenticity of all content on the ERF website and in the ERF app can be verified by reference to the original tapes recorded by the physicians conducting the featured diagnostic and therapeutic scans.

Physicians (especially OB/GYNs, pediatricians, and family practice doctors), as well as healthcare professionals generally, may wish to download the following video for display on a TV monitor in their waiting rooms, exam rooms, etc. This 44-minute video features rare endoscopic and sonographic embryonic and fetal scans which span the entirety of pregnancy. The film can be programmed for looping on most TVs.

Note: ERF does not use animated imagery to depict any structures or processes which are capable of being filmed, photographed, or scanned.

ENDOSCOPES

ERF’s embryo and fetus imagery was initially derived by teams of physician researchers and clinicians employing endoscopy (and its subsets, embryoscopy and fetoscopy) to diagnose and treat prenatal disorders in utero.

Endoscopes are medical imaging devices which permit high-resolution observation of tissues and processes inside the human body. Prenatally, they can be used to produce minimally invasive scans imaged through, but from outside, the amnion. When clinically necessary, more invasive scans may be performed by surgically entering the abdominal cavity, uterus and amniotic sac. At the distal end of these instruments is an objective lens designed for imaging. At the proximal end is an eyepiece, or sensor, which enables viewing.

HOW THEY WORK

These scopes generally consist of a tube which encloses a relay lens system (in rigid endoscopes) or a fiber bundle (for fiber-optic, or flexible, endoscopes) for illumination and to transmit an image from the objective lens inside the body to the proximal end outside.

Said differently, endoscopes use optical elements to direct light to the area sought to be illuminated and transmit the resulting image to the eye or detector. Rigid endoscopes generally offer superior resolution or magnification. But an endoscope’s objective lens is only approximately 1/5 of an inch in diameter, and this relatively small size substantially narrows the observer’s field of view (even with the addition of supplemental lenses such as “negative” or “prism” optics, etc.).

CONSTRAINTS

This limitation is further compounded by the need to use the scope in very confined spaces, with only short distances separating the objective lens from the anatomical structures being imaged. Consequently, only a small segment of the embryo or fetus is observable at any point along the timeline of the scan.

An endoscope’s construction must also accommodate frequently conflicting design considerations. The resulting compromises can involve not only fields of view, but depths of field (meaning thickness of the plane of focus) and image illumination and magnification, as well as distortion issues (i.e., stretched or compressed perspective), etc.

WORK-AROUNDS

Therefore, to produce a high-quality, single image of the entire embryo or fetus, large numbers of smaller, more detailed pictures must be joined together in a manner suggestive of the process by which puzzle pieces are assembled to form a completed picture.

This technique employs a complex proprietary process which combines segmental scans to create a final, multi-source composited image. The resulting picture is digitally adjusted to preserve each segment’s original color, resolution, contrast, proportions, illumination, etc. Technicians also correct for vignetting (image degradation involving content loss at the periphery of the frame).

MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING & ULTRASOUND

The British medical journal Lancet has published a prenatal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study similarly involving the creation of 3D pictures to diagnose and treat congenital heart problems in utero. The BBC reports that “A series of 2D pictures of the heart are taken from different angles using an MRI machine” to image the fetus.

The story explains that “Sophisticated computer software pieces the images together, adjusts for the beating of the heart and builds … [a] 3D image of the heart.” A pediatric cardiologist describes the resulting 3D images as “beautiful.”

This MRI research is part of a fetal diagnostic project which is also exploring scans using “four ultrasound probes at the same time – current scans use one – to get a more detailed picture.” This process produces a more wholistic composited image.

NASA COMPOSITES IMAGERY (SINGLE MEDIUM)

ERF’s imaging process is conceptually similar to the technologies used by the National Atmospheric and Space Administration (NASA) to produce wide-area satellite images of the earth’s surface. Until the launch of the Deep Space Climate Observatory Satellite (DSOVR), which now orbits the earth at a distance of one million miles, NASA had no camera positioned sufficiently far from our planet to capture the globe’s entire sunlit surface in a single photograph.

As previously noted, an endoscope’s objective lens must also operate too near to an embryo or fetus to permit its entire anatomy to be imaged in a single frame. This same constraint complicates the capture of satellite imagery. Previous pictures of the earth could, therefore, only be created using digital “stitching” technology to make one large composite image from many smaller segments. Scientists sometimes describe this final image (or “data set”) as a “mosaic,” comprised of large numbers of individual tiles.

HYBRID IMAGERY (MULTI-MEDIA)

A satellite picture can also be augmented by aerial photography (cameras on aircraft operating within the earth’s atmosphere) to improve resolution. Hybrid images of this sort can be created by superimposing black and white imagery (for still higher resolution) over color pictures of the same area, the latter to optimize chromic (color) fidelity.

In this connection, the scientific press reports that the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) “combined over one thousand precise, calibrated satellite images with other data from the continent’s surface to create a single picture of the entire continent.” The high magnification factor (think telephoto lenses which enlarge image objects) of each of these puzzle pieces yielded a composite picture depicting more detail than could have been captured in a single photo shot with a wide-angle lens.

APPLICATIONS IN ASTRONOMY

NASA uses this mosaicking process to image celestial bodies of nearly every description. The Juno spacecraft made composite images of Jupiter; InSight of Mars; Cassini of Saturn; and Hubble of the Sombrero Galaxy.

An exquisitely detailed depiction of a challenging subject, whether prohibitively small or large, near or far, may involve vastly more complexity than meets the eye, and there exist nearly countless examples of comparably creative combinations of imaging techniques.

ENTAMOLOGICAL USES

NASA is not alone in its use of this imaging technique. A Wall Street Journal story, July 30, 2022, titled “Breathtaking Bugs at the Museum,” describes an exhibition of “macrophotography prints [which] makes us appreciate these small creatures’ beauty on a large scale.” The article explains the creation of large format prints “in an exhibit called ‘Extinct and Endangered, Insects in Peril.’” The imaging process is called “macrophotography,” and it took an average of “three weeks and as many as 10,000 files for the photographer to make an individual image.”

The photographer used a digital camera “to which he attached a bellows, a tube lens and a microscope objective (basically a very high-powered magnifying glass).” The process requires that the “subject insect … be divided into as many as 20 or 30 sections, each of which is photographed separately.” Lighting is critically important “because eyes, legs, wings, etc. reflect light differently ….” The photographer consequently “devised different lighting regimes for each.”

Even more remarkably:

The macrophotography camera setup has an extremely shallow depth of field, so the lens is electronically advanced toward the subject in seven-micron increments (a micron equals one millionth of a meter) taking 400 or 500 digital pictures that are then merged to create an image in sharp focus from front to back.

The article adds that, “Paradoxically, smaller insects require more files than larger ones.” In the aggregate, “the section images are joined to make a file that may be as large as eight, nine or 10 gigabytes … The detail is stunning ….”

A topically related story was posted by the journal Nature, March 10, 2023, titled, “Gigantic map of fly brain is a first for a complex animal.” First published in the journal Science, the project was made possible when:

Researchers spent a year and a half capturing images of the brain of a single six-hour-old Drosophila larva with a nanometre-resolution electron microscope. Using a computer-assisted programme, they then pinpointed the neurons and synapses and spent months manually checking them.

Science reported a related July 19, 2018, story titled, “In a ‘tour de force,’ researchers image an entire fly brain in minute detail.” The imaging methodology was, so to speak, mind-boggling:

[Researchers] soaked a fly’s brain in a solution containing heavy metals, which bind to the membranes of neurons and to proteins at the synapses …. [Next the team used] a diamond knife [to] cut the brain into about 7000 slices, each of which was struck with a beam of electrons from the microscope to create an image.

The process required a camera that could capture 100 frames per second, a robotic system to scoot each brain slice into place with nanometer precision, and software to stitch together the resulting 21 million pictures. The result is a reconstruction that lets researchers zoom in on the features of an individual synapse.

FROM THE SMALLEST TO THE LARGEST

The Orange County Register carried a similar article, February 18-19, 2023, titled, “See how the world’s largest photograph was created in Irvine [CA].” The picture involved 6 photographers working for 8 months to create a “panoramic view of … the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro ….”

Using an ancient “pinhole camera” concept, the process captured “images of every single building” on the 4,800-acre base. The picture was created from about 500,000 individual images, shot from distances of 50-75 yards between the camera and the object being photographed. Each negative was then painstakingly exposed on one solid piece of muslin cloth, 31 feet tall and 111 feet long. The end-result was a single, giant, composite, historically significant photograph of virtually the entire military facility.

IMAGING IMPLICATIONS FOR NEUROLOGY IN HUMANS

The journal EHP, Environmental Health Perspectives, November 20, 2018, published an article titled, “The Brain before Birth: Using fMRI [functional magnetic resonance imaging] to Explore the Secrets of Fetal Neurodevelopment.” In this case, the imaging technology is used to study the trillions of neural connections, called the connectome, which link the “billions of threadlike fibers [that] crisscross the brain.”

The author explains that “fMRI is not perfect,” and that the images “generated by the technology must be manipulated to correct for distortion and to scale brain scans to a consistent, comparable template.” Equally problematic is the fact that “technical issues potentially result in artifacts that may not be recognized as errors.”

OCEANOGRAPHIC RELEVANCE

Arstechnica.com/science, May 17, 2023, posted an essay titled “3D ‘digital twin’ showcases wreck of Titanic in unprecedented detail.” Previous film of the wreck employed low-resolution cameras, and a 1997 documentary produced by James Cameron used “miniature models and special effects … since Cameron couldn’t get the high-quality footage he needed for a feature film.” The new pictures of the ship were obtained using two submersibles as camera platforms, mapping

… every millimeter of the wreck, including the debris field spanning some three miles. The result was a whopping 16 terabytes of data, along with over 715 still images and 4K video footage. That raw data was then processed to create the 3D digital twin. The resolution is so good, one can make out part of the serial number on one of the propellers.

‘This model is the first one based on a pure data cloud, that stitches all that imagery together with data points created by a digital scan, and with the help from a little artificial intelligence, we are seeing the first unbiased view of the wreck.’

One of the producers explained to BBC News that “you have to map every square centimeter—even uninteresting parts, like on the debris field you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects.”

On the same topic, a May 17, 2023 insider.com story, headlined “First-ever full 3D scan of the Titanic on the sea bed reveals the ruined ocean liner in incredible detail,” describes the production as “the largest underwater scanning project in history.”  It explains that “Previous footage has only allowed you to see one small area of the wreck at a time,” but this “model will allow people to zoom out and look at the entire thing for the first time ….”

METEOROLOGICALLY RELATED IMAGE PROCESSING

The Wall Street Journal, February 17, 2023, ran a story headlined “El Niño Likely to Form By Summer ….” It described the process by which weather forecasts are also made using composite imagery:

NOAA meteorologists make predictions of the ENSO cycle using statistical models that compare historical records with current ocean and atmospheric conditions. They also use computer models that combine data from satellites, ocean buoys, ships’ weather balloons and land-based stations into algorithms that form a picture, or map of what the future state of the atmosphere looks like based on the model’s calculations.

IMAGE PROCESSING MAKES INVISIBLE DEEP SPACE PHENOMENA VISIBLE

According to gizmodo.com, on July 12, 2022, “the first full-color images from the Webb Space Telescope showed countless nebulae, galaxies, and a gassy exoplanet as they had never been seen before.” The article, headlined “Are the Colors in Webb Telescope Images ‘Fake’?” answers an emphatic “NO!” As it turns out, “Webb only collects infrared and near-infrared light, which the human eye cannot see ….”

The story goes on to explain that:

Image developers on the Webb team were tasked with turning the telescope’s infrared image data into some of the most vivid views of the cosmos we’ve ever had. They assign various infrared wavelengths to colors on the visible spectrum, familiar reds, blues, yellows, etc. But while the processed images from the Webb team aren’t literally what the telescope saw, they’re hardly inaccurate.

By way of further explanation, “Astronomy is often done outside the visible spectrum, because many of the most interesting objects in space are shining brightly in ultraviolet, x-rays, and even radio waves.” Instruments such as Webb were “designed to extend the power of our vision, to go beyond what our eyes are capable of doing, to see light that our eyes are not sensitive to.”

Using infrared light to image objects enables astronomers to “penetrate thick clouds of gas and dust in space, allowing researchers to see previously hidden secrets of the universe,” and then convert that monochromatic light into wavelengths visible to the human eye. Even more image processing is then necessary because “Webb’s raw images are so laden with data that they need to be scaled down before they can be translated into visible light.”

The Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2023, published a spectacular image of the “Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to earth … seen in a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope using its NIRCam instrument.” As described above, the original image was monochromatic, but later processed to colorize it, and thereby make it visible to the human eye.

The New York Times, April 23, 2023, published a story on astronomical imaging which detailed the technology used to digitally enhance deep space photography. Headlined “Mysteries Residing at the Magnetic Heart of the Milky Way,” the article describes a “new celestial image” with “an impressionistic swirl of color” which “represents a first step toward understanding the role of magnetic fields in the cycle of stellar death and rebirth. The resulting map “reveals previously invisible details of a stretch of the central Milky Way 500 light-years wide” by assigning colors which “represent different temperatures of interstellar dust: Green indicates cool, dense dust; pink indicates warmer dust.”

The arbitrary assignment of color to reveal otherwise hidden details also plays a role in “showing the directions of magnetic force in the clouds.” Yellow streaks,” for instance, “are jets of hot ionized gas, which emits radio waves.” A specialized spectrograph “measured the direction of polarization of the infrared light emanating from the dust, revealing the directions of the magnetic fields point by point.” The story concludes by noting that “Every new generation of sees a new version of our galaxy,” because imaging technology continues to evolve to produce pictures far beyond anything discernable by the unaided human eye.

An even more arcane imaging technology is described in a Wall Street Journal article dated July 3, 2023, and titled “Launched Space Telescope To Study Dark Universe.” The story details the process by which “dark matter” is imaged:

Only 5% of the universe is made of matter that we can see [ironically, according to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, only 5% of the earth’s oceans have been explored]. Now the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission will help probe the rest of what’s out there – what scientists call dark matter, which holds the cosmos together, and dark energy, which is responsible for our universe expanding …. Both are undetectable using traditional telescopes and astronomy.

The imaging challenge which must be overcome to create the intended “picture” is that dark matter “neither emits or absorbs light,” it can only be detected indirectly, “by observing the effects of its gravity in space.” That indirect process involves Euclid sensing “the position and shape of a distant galaxy, [and the fact that] the light from that cosmic structure will get bent ever so slightly by the dark matter between it and the telescope, and scientists can note that deviation.”

So whether we look up or down, in or out, many of the most important features of our universe can only be seen, at a cosmic or even sub-atomic level, by applying exceedingly complex image processing technologies.