Wireless Football Helmets - Monitor Head Injuries

Virginia Tech has started a program which may become the standards for all football programs around the world. They are taking the danger of head injuries incurred during football games which may have an intense impact on the players’ life when they grow old.

Small accelerometers are attached to the player’s head with Head Impact Telemetry Systems (HITS). Every tackle, hit, and fall of the player’s helmet is transmitted to a Sybase database over a 900-MHz wireless signal for cataloguing information for future use. Players may not notice that they’ve suffered concussions but the Doctors on the sideline can monitor impacts of 98g or more because of the real time data transmitted by the system, so they can effectively prevent the possibility of permanent brain damage that is so common today. Players are pulled aside while the Doctor decides whether or not he should continue to play.

The University is waiting for independent funding from the National Institute of Health because they are hoping to install the chips into every player’s helmet.