Keep the Original Slices Visible in an AI Visualization

Description and use

Problem: interpolated slices blend with originals, obscuring provenance. Solution: keep originals immutable, store generated slices separately with metadata, use a manifest, and provide distinct views in Blender to inspect source and generated data.

Problem

When interpolated slices are added to a 3D stack, viewers lose the ability to distinguish source images from AI‑generated ones, making it hard to inspect the original data.

Outcome

The pipeline now preserves source images, records provenance in a manifest, and provides distinct views for inspection, enabling users to distinguish AI‑generated slices from originals and trace processing steps.

Workflow

• 1. Import source images into an immutable collection.
• 2. Generate intermediate slices and store them separately, tagging each with source references and processing metadata.
• 3. Create a manifest alongside outputs that records source IDs, order, spatial metadata, interpolation settings, model version, and output file IDs.
• 4. In Blender, expose separate views: original-only, combined, and mask, with buttons to toggle visibility.
• 5. Verify reversibility using a synthetic stack with numbered planes, unequal spacing, and a missing image; confirm that generated outputs do not overwrite inputs.
• 6. Rebuild the derived collection with a different interpolation setting; ensure the original collection and manifest remain unchanged.
• 7. Cache derived results while preserving provenance information for future reuse.

Evidence

An interpolated slice can make a 3D stack easier to move through. Once it looks like every other layer, though, a viewer can lose track of which images came from the source and which were generated.

Source

I would keep the imported images in an immutable source collection and write every derived result elsewhere.

Source

For a new version of a slice‑based tool, I would expose an original‑only view and a combined view.

Source

A small synthetic stack is enough to exercise the pipeline mechanics.

Source