Dizziness, nausea and vomiting, sweating, excessive salivation, headaches — motion sickness can turn a vacation road trip into a real nightmare. More common in children, though it also affects some adults quite severely, motion sickness can strike in a car, on a boat (the famous seasickness), but also on a plane and, though rarer, on a train or even in the subway.
Motion sickness is thought to stem from an inadequate brain response to two conflicting cues: the eyes perceive a stationary environment, while the vestibular system, located in the inner ear, detects the vehicle’s movements. A range of techniques, more or less effective, can help lessen the symptoms. But a solution might lie deep within your iPhone.
Make the body believe it is in motion
Homeopathy, acupressure bracelets, antihistamine medications, choosing the right seat, or simply keeping your gaze fixed on the horizon — all of these tips can help limit motion sickness, provided you avoid reading or watching a moving screen. And yet, as the BBC details, the lead may lie in the little-known functionality of your smartphone that could help you better cope with travel.
Called “Vehicle Motion Indicators”, it displays animated dots along the edges of the screen that move in sync with the vehicle’s movements in which you are traveling. All of this, without interfering with using the phone.
“If you can send signals to your body about how you move through space, this can alleviate motion sickness,” explains to the BBC Kristen Steenerson, a professor at Stanford University in the United States. The vestibular system expert herself uses this feature, praising its effectiveness. “Everyone thinks there’s a problem with my screen, but these dots are really brilliant,” she says enthusiastically.
How to enable this feature on your smartphone?
To test this option, go to the Settings on your iPhone, then choose Accessibility > Movement > Vehicle Motion Indicators. You can opt to keep it enabled permanently or in Automatic mode. In this case, small animated dots appear along the edges of the screen when the phone detects that you are in motion, and disappear when the movement stops. If this feature is currently only available on iPhone, it is possible to download an app that offers a similar result on Android phones.
The BBC journalist collected numerous very positive testimonials, although all pointed to the same paradox: this feature is only useful when you have motion sickness because you’re looking at your phone! Nevertheless, nothing prevents you from turning it on just to try to relieve your motion sickness, even if you hadn’t planned to use your phone during the trip. Or you can also put your phone down… and look at the horizon!
