Most of the researches in the past shows athletes who are involved in impact sports are prone to long-term brain injuries. Until now there wasnt any solution other than watching from the sidelines even if it is a coach or a physical trainer.
But now time changed. There is a good news coming up for the everyone. An IEEE member Roozbeh Ghaffari, a biomedical engineer, also co-founder of the five-year old Materials Company (MC10), in Cambridge, have developed a skullcap which can be worn alone or underneath a helmet. It detects how hard a player is hit. Depending on the impact severity, different coloured LEDs light up on the back of the cap for all to see.
According to the Brain Trauma Foundation, in New York City, almost 2 to 4 million sports-related brain injuries occur around the world each year. All these lead to the research conducted by MC10 In the early days of their research they already mentioned that a cap worn close to the head would be better for monitoring hard hits than a helmet embedded with sensors. But for athletes to wear the cap, MC10 had to make it comfortable as well as practical. With the help and collaboration of Reebok, MC10 modelled its cap after the beanie, or skullcap, made with elastic that many athletes wear alone or under their helmets to keep hair and sweat from their faces.
The researchers then developed an electronic monitor packed with sensors that fits inside the cap. The device incorporates a semiconductor tri-axial accelerometer to measure acceleration of the skull, which occurs when the head is hit hard. There is also a semi-conductor gyroscope to measure rotational acceleration when an athlete's head snaps back or hits the ground after a fall. These sensors are integrated with a microprocessor that calculates the impact using an algorithm similar to the head injury criterion used to assess the intensity of impact in sports. The cap has three LEDs that appear below the helmet line on the back of the neck. The GREEN light represents the cap is on and working, YELLOW indicates that the player experienced a moderate impact and RED indicates that the head has received a severe hit.
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