Samsung may have finally solved one of the most hated problems in travel

I The National Library of Medicine reports that nearly one in three people suffer from motion sickness. Fortunately, there are effective pills that you can take under medical supervision to avoid them. But if you don’t want to rely on tablets, Samsung has a new solution that can temporarily cure motion sickness.

What exactly causes motion sickness?

Before I talk about the solution developed by Samsung, it is important to understand what actually causes motion sickness. Research suggests that it may be due to “disparity in signals about movement from different parts of your body.”

Let me explain with a simple example. If you’re driving and looking out the window, you’ll see things like trees and other cars coming in and out of your line of sight. This sends a signal to your brain that you are moving.

However, as you sit inside the car, your inner ear and other parts of your body tell your brain that you are sitting still. Because different parts of your body are sending conflicting signals about your movement status, your brain experiences a sensory conflict, leading to motion sickness.

Its symptoms vary from person to person. For example, some may experience dizziness and excessive sweating, while others may experience nausea and a tendency to vomit.

What is Samsung’s answer to motion sickness?

The technology company announced the blog post yesterday that it’s launching a new mobile app called Hearapy (a word that probably comes from combining “hearing” and “healing”) to combat motion sickness. The app is designed based on the findings of Nagoya University in Japan.

Researchers at the university found in their experiments that listening to a 100 Hz tone can be very helpful in treating motion sickness. As a result, the Hearapy app plays a 100 Hz sine wave at 75-85 dB, which needs to be listened to at least one minute before a trip to reduce the likelihood of motion sickness symptoms.

Hearing this sound is reported to stimulate the balance system in the inner ear, and the effect can last for up to two hours. However, the blog post specifically states that “no music or sounds should interfere with the sine wave,” or it may affect the effectiveness of the treatment.

Is it only available on Samsung devices?

Samsung’s Hearapy app. | Image via PhoneArena

That’s not the case! The new Hearapy app is not only available for Samsung Galaxy smartphones. You can install it in any Android phone (I test it on mine Pixel 10).

Samsung is talking about Galaxy Buds 4 Pro in every blog post, which may give the impression that the app will only work with these wireless earbuds. Well, that’s not the case, as I’ve tried mine Nothing Ear (2), and it works perfectly fine. That said, it did display a message that says, “Put your Galaxy Buds on for a good fit and hear the bass clearly,” when used with any other earbuds.

The South Korean giant may have tweaked the Buds 4 Pro app. But I believe it will work with any headphones or earbuds capable of producing a 100 Hz sine wave.

In fact, you can have the option to use it without headphones, although I believe this would reduce its effectiveness. There is also a dedicated option to manage the duration of the play.

Another cure for motion sickness is related to technology

Not everyone likes to take pills. For them, solutions like this can be really helpful. Interestingly, the Samsung Hearapy app is not the only technology-related solution to motion sickness.

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