This insight quickly spread to an interdisciplinary research project to verify the findings. Herb Yang in the university's Computer Science Department works closely with Pierson to guide the research. Today the team includes people throughout the university and medical community, from surgeons to computer graphics specialists, working together to establish a rigorous scientific and statistical basis for expanding these important findings beyond the clinic. Whereas most people can only discern about 80 shades of gray through a visual inspection of ultrasound images, Pierson's computer can distinguish 256 shades. This becomes apparent in an ultrasound image because the soundwaves decrease in their intensity and amplitude.
Blood is a fluid, and fluids reflect a lower value echo.
The distinctions Pierson can now make are important in understanding the processes associated with infertility because the release of an egg from the follicle is related to blood flow and to the action of the hormones on the tissue of the follicle. This gives off a different echo-intensity pattern than the pattern received from cells that don't respond to that hormone. If the LH receptors aren't there, the follicle tends to be very thin and bright-walled. The computer allows us to put hard numbers on these subtle changes. From these we can make predictions, such as, within this range of numbers, the likelihood of releasing an egg is 80 percent.