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French Start-up Invents Strange, Liquid-Filled Glasses That Cure Motion Sickness

They may not be the prettiest pair of glass out there, but they are certain to make long trips more pleasant for those prone to motion sickness.

One in three of us experiences motion sickness at least once in a lifetime, but for many, motion sickness will occur throughout their entire lifetime. Fortunately, in a breakthrough that many who suffer from this illness are sure to applaud, the engineers at French start-up company, Citroën, have just created a pair of glasses they claim will eliminate any motion sickness you might be feeling in as little as ten minutes, reports Gizmodo. Early reports indicate that the glasses are a little goofy-looking, but that’s probably a small price to pay to keep your lunch down and avoid all those embarrassing vomit-fests.

If you are one of the unlucky few that start to feel nauseated the moment you sit down in the passenger or back seat of a vehicle, then you also know that fast acceleration, winding roads and lurching stops and starts are the quick ticket to barfsville. These feelings of unease often aren’t as bad when you look out a car window— in this case, the differing sensations of motion usually re-synchronize within the brain. Reading or looking down, on the other hand, will often make you feel worse.

According to WebMD, motion sickness happens when the brain receives conflicting reports from perceived motion from the eyes and inner ears. For instance, imagine you are on one of those radical rides at the carnival that spins you around, while at the same time you wind up with your body alternating from right-side-up to upside down. In this case, your inner ears feel one thing, and your eyes see another. You will even feel the sensation down in your muscles. In some of us, the brain isn’t able to process this mixture of signals. The result for that unlucky group is bile-inducing feelings of dizziness and nausea.

Enter the glasses that Citroën introduced to tackle motion sickness. The glasses, named Seetroën by the company, alleviate the problem motion sickness sufferers have with a simple design that uses Boarding Ring technology. Boarding Ring technology, in a nutshell, means that the Seetroën glasses are “filled with liquids that are free to slosh around.”

These special glasses contain four rings that are filled with blue-dyed liquids that, when combined with gravity, simulate the movements and angle of the horizon. That way, when the motions of the colored liquids are seen by the person wearing the Seetroën glasses, they match sensations their inner ears are detecting.

According to the Citroën company, passengers don’t have to wear the fluid-filled eyesores for an entire trip. After they put them on, they can look at an unmoving object such as a smartphone or book for about 10-12 minutes. After that, the brain re-synchronizes and rids itself of any sensations of nausea or confusion. That particular action looks to alleviate motion sickness for about 95 percent of the population until the next time they get into a vehicle. The Seetroën glasses will be available on Citroën’s website for about €99 ($115 USD).

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