<p>Comparison of architectures based on performance metrics for Z-focus tracker.</p>

The results highlight that ZFT-Net outperforms all other architectures across all evaluation metrics. Notably, ZFT-Net achieved a switch count of 0, meaning its predictions consistently transitioned from class 0 (pre-cellular zone) to class 1 (cellular clarity phase), and finally to class 2 (noise saturation zone), without fluctuations or misclassifications. This indicates the model’s robustness in maintaining a stable and accurate prediction sequence. Source data are provided in Supplementary Information S1 Data.xlsx.