The anguish of seasickness, as well as motion sickness, will soon be over thanks to this all new smartphone app that can send electric shocks via a headphone jock, researchers announced. The app will soon be available five to ten years from now.
"We are confident that within five to ten years people will be able to walk into the chemist and buy an anti-seasickness device... It may be something like a machine that is used for back pain," said Qadeer Arshad, the lead research from Imperial College London.
He added, "we hope it might even integrate with a mobile phone, which would be able to deliver the small amount of electricity required via the headphone jack. In either case, you would temporarily attach small electrodes to your scalp before travelling -- on a cross channel ferry, for example."
Although the cause is really unknown, some scientists theorized that motion sickness is due to the confusing messages (from our eyes and ears) received by the brain when moving. In every ten people, three experience excessive symptoms of motion sickness like dizziness, severe nausea and cold sweats.
To test its capability to treat motion sickness, scientists simulated the feeling a person gets when on a boat or rollercoaster by devising a specialized motorized rotating where electrodes are attached on their head for around ten minutes to target motor sensors. Volunteers confirmed that after treatment, they felt less nauseous and symptoms subside quickly.
The team voiced their excitement as they claimed that an effective cure for motion sickness comes in tablets that cause drowsiness.
"That's all very well if you are on a short journey or a passenger, but what about if you work on a cruise ship and need to deal with motion sickness whilst continuing to work?," asked Professor Michael Gresty from Imperial College London.
"We are really excited about the potential of this new treatment to provide an effective measure... with no apparent side effects. The benefits that we saw are very close to the effects we see with the best travel sickness medications available," he added.
