French inventors' glasses aim to combat all forms of travel sickness

French inventors claim a pair of spectacles is the solution to all forms of travel sickness.

The glasses, with round lenses in front as well as the sides, have a layer of blue-coloured liquid sandwiched between the lenses.

“When they are worn, the blue liquid acts as an artificial horizon, which helps to reset the senses put out of balance by motion,” Antoine Jeannin, who runs the company Boarding Glasses with his brother Renaud and father Hubert, told The Connexion.

“In practice, as soon as anyone starts feeling motion sickness, if they put the glasses on and look through them with the artificial horizon, they should start feeling better in 10 minutes, at which point the glasses can be taken off.

“Then they can continue the journey, usually without having to use the glasses again.”

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Interest from French navy

The glasses restrict the field of vision, but no more than thick-framed and armed sunglasses.

Mr Jeannin, who, like the rest of his family, does not suffer from travel sickness, said word about the glasses has spread so fast they were contacted by the French navy which wanted to test them.

A significant number of sailors, famously including Britain’s Admiral Nelson, have suffered from seasickness at the start of deployments on ships.

Customers have found they are also effective for curing car and air sickness.

Hubert Jeannin started working on a cure for motion sickness 20 years ago. Scientists had determined it was caused by a dissonance between motion sensors in our inner ears, essential for balance and other inputs, especially sight.

“He realised that if the sight inputs could be altered by an artificial horizon, the body would ‘reset’ itself and so the idea of the motion spectacles was born,” said Antoine Jeannin.

“It was difficult to convince people that it worked, and so we decided to set up our own company in 2015 and make and market them ourselves.”

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Strong sales

The lenses are made in China and shipped over to France, where they are assembled into glasses at a factory near Toulon (Var).

Prices are €69 for clear lens versions and €89 for polarised versions.

A version for children, where the arms are replaced with an elastic band and the side lenses moved forward, is being developed and should be ready later this year, at a price of €79.

The glasses have been designed so they can be worn in front of many types of prescription glasses – if they do not fit, the recommendation is to take off the ordinary glasses for the period it takes for the Boarding Glasses to work.

So far 70% of the company’s sales of 50,000 glasses have been in France through their website, boardingglasses.com, with the rest mainly sold to Spain, Italy and the UK through their website or via Amazon.