BOSTON -- Boston researchers have put a new spin on the treatment for dizziness.

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When a dizzy spell hits, the symptoms can take you by storm. Former truck driver Matt Murray is now crippled by chronic dizziness.

"I fell down in the Star Market once. And I couldn't get up, and it was very embarrassing," he said.

About 40 percent of Americans visit a doctor at some point because of dizziness and balance problems. The causes include: diseases of the ears, eyes and brain -- and even age. Sometimes the consequences are devastating.

"Falls account for 50 percent of accidental death in the elderly, so that's pretty scary," Massachusetts Eye and Ear Dr. Steven Rauch said.

But a new prototype vest that wraps around the torso may soon help. It's complete with a motion sensor that measures the tilt of the body and a minicomputer that triggers the appropriate vibrator plates.

"If you lean forward the ones on the front of you vibrate, if you lean back, the ones on the back start vibrating and it gives you a cue in a sense of how to stand up," Massachusetts Eye and Ear Dr. Conrad Wall.

Researchers at Mass Eye and Ear and MIT developed the vest and tested it in motion machines like this. So far, they say, patients are able to keep their balance when they're wearing the vest.

"It's non-invasive. I can put it on anybody. I can put it on a little old lady, I can put it on an athlete, I can put it on anyone and give it a try and if it helps, great, if it doesn't we really haven't lost anything," Rauch said.

The team will next try to make the vest smaller -- more like a belt -- and they hope eventually it will cost no more than $500.

"I think it's really important because. It can help a lot of people," Murray said.

Mass Eye and Ear researchers are also working on an balance implant. Surgically placed in back of the ear, the implant would collect motion information and send electrical signals to the nerves that help keep balance steady.