New Smart, Wearable Technology Aims to Protect Athletes and Reduce Concussions in Sports
By Craig Knapp on June 11, 2015

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that anywhere between 1.6 million and 3.8 million concussions occur each year. Many of these will happen to athletes while playing sports. In the 2008-2009 school year, 400,000 brain injuries (concussions) were reported in high school athletics. These were only the concussions that were reported.

Many athletes will suffer a concussion or traumatic brain injury without knowing it. This is because fewer than 10 percent of sport-related concussions involve a loss of consciousness (i.e. blacking out, seeing stars). That’s where Triax Technologies’ new wearable headband and skull cap comes in. It’s called SIM-P and it measures all head impacts by calculating its G-force. This allows parents to browse all head-impact history and share forceful hits with your child or teen’s coach and physician. SIM-P automatically connects via Bluetooth to its companion iOS app to sync all impacts recorded.

SIM-P is technology for individuals. Triax technologies also created technology for teams and organizations called SIM-G that has a few more bells and whistles that come with it. Using a headband or skull cap, all impact data is transmitted in 20 milliseconds to the sideline and to the cloud, allowing instant notifications of high impact events on up to 63 athletes simultaneously. Even better, within the SIM-G software, a T.E.S.T. report will give the instructors or coach raw data to help athletes play smarter, safer, and perform better. With time, this technology has the opportunity to reduce an athlete’s exposure to concussions. Some organizations, schools, research groups and even a boxing gym have already invested in the technology.

Both SIM-P and SIM-G wearables are waterproof and comfortably fit with or without a helmet. Headbands and skull caps come in multiple colors including black, blue, pink and red, and sizes. Both can be used in soccer, football, boxing, water polo, ice hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, cheerleading, basketball, field hockey, baseball, horseback riding, skiing, snowboarding, rugby, Xtreme sports, and more.

With more than 135,000 concussion-related hospital visits every year, investing in this new technology does not only help keep your child or teen safer, but it could end up saving you money later.