What are those floaty things in your eye? (TED-Ed lesson)

YT: Sometimes, against a uniform, bright background such as a clear sky or a blank computer screen, you might see things floating across your field of vision. What are these moving objects, and how are you seeing them? Michael Mauser explains the visual phenomenon that is floaters*).




*) No, not that kind of floaters.
deathcowsays...

Mine are like this in both eyes:
http://www.barransclass.com/phys1090/circus/Gillespie_B/EyeFloaters2.jpg

I got them all 15 years ago when an insanely powerful flash discharged right in front of my eyes. (INSTANT pain ON) Over the next few days my eyes filled with them.

When I look at highly collimated light (like a powerful view in a microscope or telescope) I can see ALLLLL of them swimming in 3D.

A bright sunny day blue sky is like looking through egg whites.

Fairbssays...

Sorry to hear that. All the time? I take it there's no way to fix? Sounds kind of like some sort of eye trauma.

deathcowsaid:

Mine are like this in both eyes:
http://www.barransclass.com/phys1090/circus/Gillespie_B/EyeFloaters2.jpg

I got them all 15 years ago when an insanely powerful flash discharged right in front of my eyes. (INSTANT pain ON) Over the next few days my eyes filled with them.

When I look at highly collimated light (like a powerful view in a microscope or telescope) I can see ALLLLL of them swimming in 3D.

A bright sunny day blue sky is like looking through egg whites.

deathcowsays...

@Fairbs I have good days and bad days with them... but the good days are when I am inside not looking at blue skies : ) Or snowy fields, that can be bad. I actually switch my videosift to black and for my job (as software developer) I switch my editors to black backgrounds also. This minimizes their appearance.

For telescopes and microscopes , I use binoviewers which dramatically reduce the perception of floaters as two eyes are averaged out.

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