Citroen's Seetroen glasses want to cure your car sickness

If you don't suffer from severe motion sickness when riding in the car, the Citroën Seetroën anti-motion-sickness glasses would look like a live-action Pixar prop. But they're real, and they really help. The nausea-inducing ailment happens when the inner ear, the eye, and sensory nerves send conflicting signals to the brain about what the body's doing. The Seetroën glasses use colored fluid-filled rings where lenses would go. The eye's peripheral vision uses the fluid to establish a horizon and harmonize visual information with other motion information being sent to the brain.

Doctor's orders say to put the Seetroëns on as soon as symptoms appear, and that all should be well again in about ten minutes. For those who already wear glasses, the Seetroëns can be worn over prescription lenses.

A French company called Boarding Ring invented the technology, which has been around at least since 2013 and looks to have been developed for seafarers — Boarding Ring's address is in the South of France just off the Mediterranean. The glasses were tested on the French Navy and found to be 95 percent effective. Early reviews of the spectacles come from boating magazines, and the specs received a special mention at the marine-focused 2013 DAME Awards.

Citroën's contribution to the party was calling Parisian design studio 5-5 to redesign the glasses, because the version Boarding Ring designed and sells look like they belong in a SyFy channel movie. Since Boarding Ring focused on boaters, the company apparently figured that no one but a small team of like-minded individuals would see them — or that folks wouldn't mind looking like a myopic Neptune out of water.

Citroën's lifestyle site sells the Seetroëns in white for 99 euros, about $116 at today's exchange rate, but they won't ship until September. If you prefer price over fashion, Boarding Ring sells its version for 80 euros or $94, appears to have black and blue color options, as well as a children's version with another two lenses (six in total) that act as sunglasses. Boarding Ring's version is out of stock, though, and won't ship more until December. Other outlets appear to have them in stock now, for even less.

Oh yeah, Citroën says you can take the glasses off "and enjoy the rest of the journey" once symptoms go away, so you won't need to spend that entire 12-day cruise looking like a minor Marvel Universe character.