Sensor laden Helmet Checks Your Head on the Field
An article in Popular Science mentions Doctor Bennet Omalu who is finding that football players are at increased risk of dementia brought on by head injuries on the field. A condition he calls football-induced chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Other researchers are getting involved but the NFL still isn't convinced, but New Hampshire-based Simbex is offering something that can help lessen the problem. Their Head Impact Telemetry System, or HIT System, is a football helmet packed with sensors that can detect sudden impacts and wirelessly relay information to a remote station. So if a player takes a particularly hard hit, the coach can see it right away and take steps, even if the player looks fine. The side benefit is that the HIT System might help determine whether CTE is a genuine condition or not. Since its introduction, it's been used to collect data on over 250,000 impacts, the kind of real-world data set that researchers look for.
