Tile Serving Without a Server to Traverse Whole Slide Imaging Data on the Web

Tile Serving Without a Server to Traverse Whole Slide Imaging Data on the Web | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Tile Serving Without a Server to Traverse Whole Slide Imaging Data on the Web Praphulla M S Bhawsar, Erich Bremer, Máire A Duggan, Stephen Chanock, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6256330/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background: Whole slide imaging (WSI) has become the primary modality for digital pathology analytics. However, due to the size and high-resolution nature of whole slide images, it becomes necessary to use specialized software platforms to operate on them. These platforms engage WSI data by “tiling” the image, essentially operating only on sub-regions of the slide at a time. To execute this computationally intensive operation, these platforms typically demand that the data be locally available, raising governance concerns. Moreover, they come with potentially heavy licensing fees and require costly computational infrastructure, all the while making it difficult to distribute any analyses outside of their “enclaved” environment. Results: To address these issues, we developed ImageBox3, an in-browser tiling mechanism to enable zero-cost, zero-footprint traversal of remote WSI data. The key achievement of this work was to devise a web component that brings the computation behind tiling WSI data to the user’s personal browser. All computation required to view and operate upon WSI data is performed client-side, without compromising user governance for public and private images alike. As a result of operating on the web, ImageBox3 is always available, requires no setup whatsoever to use, and can be distributed immediately at no cost to either the provider or the user. Conclusion: Our work removes significant logistic and regulatory hurdles to collaborative WSI operation. It is a step towards the democratization of analytical tools so as to foster a participative, FAIR data commons for digital pathology. This is delivered as an open source framework (https://github.com/episphere/imagebox3) and as a ready-to-use web application (https://episphere.github.io/imagebox3). Biological sciences/Computational biology and bioinformatics Biological sciences/Computational biology and bioinformatics/Image processing digital pathology web applications tile serving client-side whole slide imaging range requests Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6256330","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":526466135,"identity":"9404299d-a467-433b-8460-cd63663c2065","order_by":0,"name":"Praphulla M S 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However, due to the size and high-resolution nature of whole slide images, it becomes necessary to use specialized software platforms to operate on them. These platforms engage WSI data by “tiling” the image, essentially operating only on sub-regions of the slide at a time. To execute this computationally intensive operation, these platforms typically demand that the data be locally available, raising governance concerns. Moreover, they come with potentially heavy licensing fees and require costly computational infrastructure, all the while making it difficult to distribute any analyses outside of their “enclaved” environment.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResults:\u003c/strong\u003e To address these issues, we developed ImageBox3, an in-browser tiling mechanism to enable zero-cost, zero-footprint traversal of remote WSI data. The key achievement of this work was to devise a web component that brings the computation behind tiling WSI data to the user’s personal browser. All computation required to view and operate upon WSI data is performed client-side, without compromising user governance for public and private images alike. As a result of operating on the web, ImageBox3 is always available, requires no setup whatsoever to use, and can be distributed immediately at no cost to either the provider or the user.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConclusion: \u003c/strong\u003eOur work removes significant logistic and regulatory hurdles to collaborative WSI operation. It is a step towards the democratization of analytical tools so as to foster a participative, FAIR data commons for digital pathology. This is delivered as an open source framework (https://github.com/episphere/imagebox3) and as a ready-to-use web application (https://episphere.github.io/imagebox3).\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Tile Serving Without a Server to Traverse Whole Slide Imaging Data on the Web","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-21 19:28:17","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6256330/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"aacb034f-24f6-41af-832d-b29ecf286295","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 21st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":55956105,"name":"Biological sciences/Computational biology and bioinformatics"},{"id":55956106,"name":"Biological sciences/Computational biology and bioinformatics/Image processing"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-11T10:21:59+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-21 19:28:17","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6256330","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6256330","identity":"rs-6256330","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}