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Sai Guruva R. Avuthu (background) and Binu Baby Narakathu (foreground) record readings from the SafeSense helmet. (Photo courtesy of WMU)

(LANKA)

KALAMAZOO, MI — A player takes a bruising hit in a football game, but gets up afterward. Is he OK to keep playing or has he suffered a concussion?

It's a matter of growing concern at all levels of the game -- from Pop Warner all the way up to the NFL. Players' tendency to "walk off" an injury just adds to the uncertainty.

But what if a player's helmet could tell coaches and trainers whether he is concussed?

A new product developed by Western Michigan University students aims to remove the guesswork in what is sometimes referred to as a "stealth" injury.

"Football concussions are a very hot topic nowadays," said Ali Eshkeiti, a doctoral student in electrical engineering, who is one of four WMU students who have worked on the project for the past two years. "We hear about this problem everywhere -- on the news, on TV."

Eshkeiti and other student engineers designed a pressure sensor for helmets using printed electronics. Data from the sensor can be relayed over Bluetooth to a smartphone, so that a coach or other team leader would instantly know the severity of an impact.The data also could be stored on a cloud-based server, so doctors and trainers could see a player's complete history.

"Basically, this device or system would eliminate the possibility of inaccuracies from field judgments made by coaches, who rely on the self-assessment or self-reporting of players," said Massood Atashbar, professor of electrical and computer engineering at WMU and the team's faculty adviser. "The coach would receive real-time, actionable information when one of the players receives a potentially dangerous and serious impact to the head."

A growing amount of research indicates that multiple concussions may create a higher risk of depression, chronic headaches, early-onset dementia and/or adult-onset attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

After being named one of eight finalists out of 300 teams in a recent competition for young entrepreneurs, sponsored by the University of Michigan, the students formed a start-up, SafeSense Technologies LLC.

They are currently seeking investors and grants to get the start-up off the ground. The sensor still requires more research and development before it is ready for the market, Atashbar said.

"We are very excited," Atashbar said. "We think that we have an enabling technology that I personally expect can lead to a very usable product fairly soon."



The impact-sensing technology could have a wide range of applications -- possibly even on the battlefield. For example, if placed inside a soldier's helmet, the sensor could measure the impact of a bomb blast or other type of trauma. The shock sensor also could be used in other sports, including lacrosse and hockey, Atashbar said.

It could be especially valuable in sports where players tend to under-report symptoms, he added.

"The players, because of the pressure, try to ignore the injury they have endured and continue playing," he said.

The device not only would warn that a hit had taken place and its severity, but would also pinpoint its location on the head.

"That would be helpful for doctors, who are treating that patient, whereas right now, they're not able to get that data," said Binu Baby Narakathu, another doctoral student who has taken a leadership role in the project. "Our application would be able to store or log that data so the doctors can retrieve past impacts and do their treatment accordingly."