I expected to shock my boyfriend (who often has to deal with pulling over so I can get some fresh air) with my hot new glasses, but he was not the least bit surprised. He’s a doctor (an ophthalmologist, as it happens), so he wasted no time in explaining to me how these glasses worked: “Proprioception is how you know where your limbs are even if your eyes are closed,” he says. “Otoliths, which are in the inner ear, help you feel acceleration. You’ve probably heard of the semi-circular canals in the ear, which help your body sense where you are on an X-Y-Z plane.” So, how does that work to combat the dizziness and nausea often associated with carsickness? “When you’re in a car, all of these senses are working in concert to dictate where you are in space,” he tells me. “ The issue with carsickness is that you can see that you’re moving in a car, but your body is not physically moving. The glasses work by ‘grounding’ your line of sight to mirror what you’re feeling with what you’re seeing.” Et voilà! Motion sickness: 0, Karina: 1.
