Monday, July 19, 2010

Building a Better Helmet


Unrelated to sustainability but very promising developments in snowboard safety are happening at Northeastern University.  A group of student researchers designed a prototype of a helmet and are calling it the Head Impact Detection and Alert System as part of their cornerstone course. The devices comes complete with sensors lining the helmet that measure acceleration and an LCD screen to display colors, representing the severity, whenever the helmet experienced an impact.

This development will prove its worth for not only those who get concussions or even knocked-out, but for those with minor head injuries as well. The Northeastern team’s research showed that if seemingly mild head injuries are left untreated, they can actually become more serious than a concussion.

This is a sure glimpse of what to expect from helmets in the near future.


For full details on the helmet, visit physorg.com.

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