April 23, 2007
New Va Tech helmet wirelessly monitors hits
The Virginia Tech football team is assisting to develop a new helmet transmitter that wirelessly monitors telemetry information on the severity of each impact to the trainers and coaching staff.
The new helmet, which is still in development, will allow staff members to detect hits that could cause injuries before a player comes out of a game or other physical signs are obvious. The end goal of the project is to protect players from serious injuries and to enhance the helmet design to better protect players.
"We hatched this idea to use small accelerometers inside the helmets with a small chip to transmit the information to the sidelines," said Dr. Gunnar Brolinson, team physician for the football players at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Brolinson is also chief of the division of sports medicine at the Virginia College of Osteopathy, also in Blacksburg.
This season, Virginia Tech will have 18 players that are using the on-board monitors, with the approval of the NCAA and help from Riddell on helmet design.
Comments:
hokie4life said:
posted on April 23, 2007 9:55 AM — 67.72.98.107 — link — abuse?
I actually heard VT has been using this technology for a couple of years now. Unless I'm missing something, this is not really new news. But still cutting edge technology which I hope provides that extra security the players need. Maybe other schools will use it after the guinea pigs prove it. During one game I know last season,a transmitter sent a large signal to the coaches from one players helmet. They took him out and checked him out after the hit. Not sure if they put him back in or not.
posted on April 23, 2007 11:08 AM — link — abuse?Kevin Donahue said:
This will be the first large scale testing this year (18 players). Last year, it was a much smaller test (2ppl?)
posted on April 23, 2007 8:23 PM — 65.0.111.247 — link — abuse?
That's a nasty amount of legal exposure you're opening up to teams and their medical staffs...Having empirical data on the cumulative hit totals and their impact intensity over the course of an entire player's career?
That's a personal injury attorney's wet dream, if you ask me...
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badgerballer said:
posted on April 23, 2007 9:55 AM — 75.70.18.179 — link — abuse?I guess this is a good idea, anything which helps prevent and/or properly diagnose injuries is a postive thing. But everytime an 'advancement' like this comes along, I can only think about those scifi movies, set 50 or 100 years in the future (or whatever) and the athletic competitions looks like mechanized versions of an EA game.