VIRTUOUS

VIRTUOUS is a platform for VDM that lets patients recreate and share what they see through a visual emulator, generating structured records to improve clinical communication and awareness.

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Introduction

Visual Degrading Myodesopsia (VDM) is frequently labeled “benign,” yet for many patients it significantly impairs daily functioning, productivity, and mental health. Because floaters are subjective visual phenomena, clinicians must rely almost entirely on patient descriptions, which are often difficult to articulate and dismissed.

VIRTUOUS addresses this gap by transforming subjective visual symptoms into experiential and structured data. Our platform enables patients to recreate what they actually see, simulate it through a camera-based emulator, and generate shareable records that are classified into floater types to improve communication, validation, and longitudinal tracking. It also serves as a place for everyone to become more aware of this disease and it's impacts, as well as a safe space for those in the community.

Problem Statement

Current approaches to VDM suffer from several key limitations:

Invisible Symptoms

Floaters can be microscopic and cannot be easily captured through standard imaging, leaving clinicians dependent on verbal descriptions.

Communication Barriers

Patients struggle to describe motion dynamics (lag, drift, snap-back), leading to misunderstanding or underestimation of severity.

Lack of Structured Tracking

There is no standardized method to document floater presentation, progression, or variability over time.

Limited Public Awareness

VDM is widely dismissed as harmless, despite survey data showing meaningful quality-of-life impact [1].

Proposed Solution

We propose a visualization and awareness platform that bridges patients, clinicians, and the public.

Patient-Driven Symptom Recreation

  • Patients recreate floaters they see using an intuitive drawing interface.
  • A live camera-based emulator simulates realistic floater lag and snap-back behavior [1] [2].
  • Others can experience symptoms firsthand.

Structured Visual Records

  • Simulations are saved as structured, shareable reports.
  • Enables longitudinal tracking and improved clinical communication.
  • Contributes to a growing dataset of real-world floater presentations.

Educational and Community Integration

  • Includes data scraped from Reddit and enhanced with semantic analysis in the form of word graphs
  • Public-facing access increases empathy and awareness.
  • Website design emphasizes supportive language, floater-friendly colors, and initiatives.

Implementation Strategy

Simulation Engine

We developed a simple physical model to mimic floater inertia, drift, and snap-back behavior relative to camera movement, increasing realism beyond static overlays and a feature requested in the few similar tools available [1].

Cross-Platform Interface

Built using a lightweight mobile framework, enabling real-time camera overlay and interactive preview.

Structured Data Pipeline

Each recreated simulation is converted into standardized visual metadata, enabling symptom comparison and longitudinal tracking.

Impact and Future Directions

By making an invisible condition visible, VIRTUOUS aims to:

  • Improve Clinical Communication through experiential visualization
  • Validate Patient Experiences often dismissed as minor
  • Enable Longitudinal Monitoring of symptom progression
  • Support Research through aggregated real-world data
  • Increase Public Awareness of VDM’s true burden

Future development includes:

  • Enhancement Of The Emulator Floater Physics to better reflect the impact of viewing distance, vitreous degeneration, distance to retina, and background brightness on floater perception and impact
  • Public API to further promote and facilitate VDM research
  • More Sophisticated Classifier that exhibits greater accuracy on edge cases
  • Greater Advocacy And Community through patient portals, volunteering opportunities, and support groups

Conclusion

VIRTUOUS transforms subjective visual disturbance into shareable, structured, and experiential data. By bridging empathy, technology, and clinical documentation, we redefine how Visual Degrading Myodesopsia is understood, validated, and studied.

Citations

  1. Lippek J, Rynko L, Framme C, Kermani O, Johannsmeier S, Ripken T. Investigating symptomatic vitreous opacities: An online survey and field of view reconstruction. Klin Monbl Augenheilkd. 2025;242(10):991-1000. doi:10.1055/a-2676-7455.
  2. Sebag J. Age-related changes in human vitreous structure. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2004;23(3):245–278. doi:10.1016/j.preteyeres.2004.03.002.
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