{"paper":{"title":"Quieting the Cobwebs: Browser Interaction for Visual Floaters","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"A web extension built on eye-physics simulation reduces floater motion distractions for all browser UI elements without site changes.","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"cs.HC","authors_text":"Jinglin Li, Kenneth Ge, Shikhar Ahuja","submitted_at":"2026-05-12T20:44:54Z","abstract_excerpt":"Floaters, cobweb-like shadows that move around a person's visual field, impair vision for nearly 33% of the population, yet have limited treatment options. Floaters especially harm screen use, since they reduce contrast, introduce clutter, and add moving distractions. While existing high-contrast tools offer some help, few address the motion that makes screen use with floaters uniquely difficult. In this paper, we build a floater simulation inspired by the physics of the eye, use it to quantitatively assess text readability at varying levels of motion, and build a novel web extension that mini"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"we build a floater simulation inspired by the physics of the eye, use it to quantitatively assess text readability at varying levels of motion, and build a novel web extension that minimizes eye movement, maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio of performing browser tasks. Importantly, our tool works not only for text, but for all UI elements, requiring no modifications to existing websites.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"The physics-inspired floater simulation accurately models real-world floater motion and visual impact, and that minimizing eye movement via the extension will meaningfully improve task performance for actual users with floaters.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"A browser extension using an eye-physics floater simulation minimizes eye movement to improve readability and task performance for users with visual floaters across all UI elements.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"A web extension built on eye-physics simulation reduces floater motion distractions for all browser UI elements without site changes.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"8bf5516ffd03cb40459fef789acf1b5f329e1dbeb09feb0dc4d7e7cbe4653309"},"source":{"id":"2605.12739","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":"dc3e51b2-9da8-4cc5-8f20-c479d95ed33e","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-14T19:37:59.434408Z","strongest_claim":"we build a floater simulation inspired by the physics of the eye, use it to quantitatively assess text readability at varying levels of motion, and build a novel web extension that minimizes eye movement, maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio of performing browser tasks. Importantly, our tool works not only for text, but for all UI elements, requiring no modifications to existing websites.","one_line_summary":"A browser extension using an eye-physics floater simulation minimizes eye movement to improve readability and task performance for users with visual floaters across all UI elements.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"The physics-inspired floater simulation accurately models real-world floater motion and visual impact, and that minimizing eye movement via the extension will meaningfully improve task performance for actual users with floaters.","pith_extraction_headline":"A web extension built on eye-physics simulation reduces floater motion distractions for all browser UI elements without site changes."},"references":{"count":43,"sample":[{"doi":"","year":2021,"title":"Admin. Donna M. | Floater Stories, June 2021.https://floaterstories.com/donna-m/. 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Features for identification of uppercase and lowercase letters.Psychological Science, 2008","work_id":"3029d4c0-86d3-4cc4-8364-8cf44c516efd","ref_index":5,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false}],"resolved_work":43,"snapshot_sha256":"e15b63265f5db97b692fc75f401fb801986bac318e4d343032d18622cdfc0b76","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}