VALUE PROPOSITION There is a need to track the force and impact exerted by athletes during their regular practices and in their games. In many cases, the accumulated force/impact can be helpful to track effort and performance, and other times it can be helpful to detect injury. In particular, in American football and other contact sports, it is important to track head impact. The development of a simple, inexpensive, and preferably disposable media to track force/impact addresses this need. Coaches, trainers, and medical personnel in various sports including football will be able to track the performance of every one of their players and keep a record of the force/impact experienced by, for example, their feet, knees, shoulders, and/or head.
DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY
This technology is an impact level detection assembly that provides a simple path towards producing calibrated impact media that can address a wide range of forces/impacts depending on the application. For example, the detection assembly can be adjusted by sport, application, gender, size, weight, type and model of the equipment to which the detection assembly is attached. The multiple impact level detection assembly utilizes existing media on paper or polymeric matrices that contain microencapsulated ink or dyes. Such type of media includes microencapsulated stock (MES). The MES medium has only two states: When it is fresh or otherwise non-impacted it is white or clear; when a sufficient force impacts it, it develops a visible color. However there is no graduation or ability gauge the relative force impact of the basic MES material. Pressure activates the MES; the disclosed multiple impact level detection assembly uses the relationship that pressure is proportional to force divided by area. The detection assembly pairs the MES with a patterned relief substrate such that a patterned relief surface, when contacted with the MES, can be used to measure the force of an impact based on the pattern activated by and permanently marked on the MES in a calibrated manner (e.g., because different minimum threshold levels of impact are required to activate different distinct patterns). For example, when an athlete wearing a helmet with the detection assembly with the MES receives an impact, the MES will reveal a pattern that is proportional to the impact force received by the head. The pattern on the MES will record the pressure exerted by the head after attenuation by the padding. The pattern records the pressure and, given that each pattern has a different calibrated contact area, it reveals the force.
BENEFITS
APPLICATIONS
IP Status
US Patent 11,274,982
LICENSING RIGHTS AVAILABLE
Licensing rights available
Inventors: Marcos Dantus, Gary Blanchard, et al.
Tech ID: TEC2016-0005
For more information about this technology,
Contact Jon Debling, Ph.D. at deblingj@msu.edu or +1-517-884-1653