Abstract: Embryo genetic screening is performed by optical inspection, such as receiving, from an image sensor, image data representing emerging polarized light that has traversed a specimen, determining birefringence properties of the specimen based at least in part on the image data, generating a polarized light image representative of the specimen based at least in part on the birefringence properties, classifying features of the polarized light image using a classifier, identifying features of the polarized light image as mitotic spindles, determining mitotic activity of the specimen based at least in part on the identified mitotic spindles, and predicting a ploidy status of the specimen based on the mitotic activity.