Glasses, lights, clothes … innovations to fight against motion sickness

2018-07-17T08: 27: 29.114Z – Mathilde ROCHE

In Many families, the road of holidays is often synonymous with joy and good mood, even excitement. But for some of them, it also invariably represents, from year to year, a bad moment to pass. In question: motion sickness. A disorder that can even turn the path of the beach or mountain into a real nightmare (fatigue, nausea, dizziness, vomiting …). To (try to) fix it, several new high-tech solutions have appeared recently. We present them to you.

The start-up of the Varoise Boarding Ring imagined a solution as surprising as it is intelligent: skyline simulator glasses. This patented and tested medical device, called "Boarding Glasses", is a spectacle frame with four rings, filled with a colored liquid. Reacting to vehicle movements, this fluid moves around the eyes in the frontal (right-left) and sagittal (front-to-back) direction. Without disturbing the central vision, it creates an artificial horizon on the periphery of the visual field. The brain thus receives from the eye and the inner ear the same information on the movements of the vehicle. The sensory conflict between vision and balance disappears instantly and the motion sickness disappears in minutes.

The car manufacturer Citroën takes this technology to create his pair of glasses "Seetroën". Always equipped with four rings and the same system, they simulate an artificial horizon to resynchronize the sight and the inner ear. With a new design, designed by the Parisian studio 5.5, they take on a hi-tech look in soft white plastic. They operate by plane, train and boat. If they are put on at the first symptoms, they act in less than 10 minutes and in 95% of cases. The glasses are not equipped with glass, so they can be shared by all members of the family, adults and children from 10 years. They can also be installed in over-glasses. Citroën offers them at € 99 in its lifestyle shop

From the same French company: the "Boarding Light" system makes it possible to fight against motion sickness in an innovative way. The start-up proposes to install in the means of transport (in particular cars and boats) self-modifying light columns. This embedded system of diodes produces intelligent lighting that instantly responds to vehicle movements. When the path is straight, the columns are half lit. But if the car or boat sways to the right or to the left, the light level moves so that our peripheral vision becomes aware of the movement. Rising and descending, light columns simulate a horizon and – in the same way as glasses – resynchronize vision with the inner ear. This artificial horizon can be created in any cabin, car or boat. Still in the testing phase, the goal is to make the vehicle a real living space, a workstation, or a place of relaxation, with an unprecedented experience for all passengers.

The Uber company has been developing research on autonomous vehicles for several years. But no matter how sophisticated they are, future robot-taxis will not be able to spare passengers the shaking caused by the roadway or the driving of other road users. This would necessarily imply a situation conducive to motion sickness for the occupants of the vehicle. Hence the idea of ​​the engineers of the firm VTC to mitigate the effects of motion sickness by diverting the attention of the human brain by clever means.

Challenges magazine explains that Uber considers his research sufficiently advanced to want to file a patent under the title of "sensory stimulation system". A series of flashes will simply mean the robot-driver's intentions to his passengers, including sudden changes of course. To combat the effects of centrifugal force, the seats will bow in turns and vibrations will announce imminent braking. Finally, small jets of compressed air will ensure a constant stimulation of the epidermis, to try to erase the perception of vertigo.

The seat Active Wellness 2.0TM is, according to its designer, Faurecia, the rising star of the cockpit from the future. Still at the concept stage, this seat 2.0 – especially designed for the driver's seat – reacts and adapts according to the analysis of the behavior of its occupant. A sensor system, integrated into the dashboard and the seat itself, manages a wide range of biological and behavioral data: heart rate, head tilt, gaze fixation, body movements, temperature and humidity, etc. The processing of these data, collected and analyzed in real time, must allow to offer a level of comfort and optimal security through various actions, for example by changing the position of the seat, the ambient lighting or the audio environment. . The system can therefore help the driver fight against motion sickness (among others) by triggering an action to correct his symptoms.

Rather than "cure" the effects of motion sickness once they are felt, the Delta 10 company has given itself the challenge of delaying the onset of symptoms. Initially specialized in solutions against seasickness, the founders of Delta 10 have surrounded themselves with experts in textile and health to develop technical clothing designed to relieve the people concerned. The fabric used for these garments is equipped with a membrane, composed of minerals, which acts on the epidermis and the nerve endings. The clothes send the infrared emitted by the body back to the body and are thus thermo-regulating. This helps to warm the body, improve muscle tone and increase stability.

Indeed, researchers have found that before being nauseous, the body relaxes and cools, especially because of a state of passivity. After several years of research, the company has marketed its collection under the brand name "Wear is my boat", now extinct. But the principle could be used again in the textile field of sport or fashion. Because if these clothes do not pretend to settle the conflict between the inner ear and the eye, they help maintain a feeling of balance and well-being for a longer time during a trip.