With the NFL mired in a concussion crisis, more attention than ever is being paid to how football organizations and equipment manufacturers can lessen the negative effects of a violent sport.

One college student may have invented a breakthrough technology to help measure collisions and let coaches and medical personnel track more accurately than ever how hard a player has been hit.

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Jake Merrell is the Brigham Young University grad student who developed the new technology, a "smart foam" called Xonano that would replace the regular foam lining inside football helmets.

Merrell's working "smart foam" prototype uses tiny embedded nano-particles to generate electric signals when compressed. Those signals are then transmitted wirelessly to tablets or computers where coaches, trainers or team doctors can read the impact of the hit.

“A coach will know within seconds exactly how hard their player just got hit,” Merrell told the BYU news site. “Even if a player pops up and acts fine, the folks on the sidelines will have data showing that maybe he isn’t OK.”

Merrell will submit his invention to the Head Health Challenge, an innovation contest sponsored by the NFL that will award up to $10 million for new products that can help protect football players' brains and track collision impact in real time.

But Merrell sees Xonano having application well beyond the football field. For example, it could one day replace the foam linings in walking shoes to record how much shock and strain you put on your joints when strolling about.

To learn more about Merrell's invention check out the YouTube video embedded above.

Homepage image: BYUNews, YouTube