With public consciousness rapidly
rising over the issue of head concussion it is inevitable that we now take head
protection much more seriously.
Unfortunately there is little room in the available geometry to truly
tackle the problem. Yet this looks to be
going in the right direction.
If this program is truly
successful, we may actually be able to protect professional athletes heads from
the consequences of what are serious concussions brought about by the force of
their own body weight and the impact of opponents. The later may need to be regulated out of
sport, but it would be much better to simply make it fully survivable as
accidents must be also allowed to happen.
The harsh reality is that the
brain does not heal very well. The only
worse thing than a concussion is an additional concussion that creates cross
tears in the brain that are mechanically unable to reorient and properly
reconnect. That is why it is necessary
to impose long layoffs after concussions and we have only begun to fully appreciate
this.
It is at least imaginable that an
injury in bone or tissue can fully recover because it has occurred over and
over again. That is hardly true for a
damaged brain were the prognosis is recovery of function but not the full
endowment expected.
Helmets inspired by brain fluid to offer better impact protection
By Chris Weiss
17:11 March 1, 2012
MIPS is designed to decrease forces on the brain during oblique impacts
Inspired by the fluid that wraps your brain in a protective, wet
blanket, Multi-directional Impact Protection System (MIPS), which is the name
of both the technology and the company behind it, claims to offer superior
protection for your head. Major helmet manufacturers are starting to turn on to
what is self-hailed as the "next generation" of helmet design.
The system developed by the Stockholm-based company originated at
Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology and Karolinska Institute and is based on
concepts pulled from physiology. The human brain is surrounded by cerebrospinal
fluid, which allows it to slide around inside the skull upon head impact and protect
it from direct impact. MIPS helmets don't use fluid, but sandwich a layer of
low-friction material between the outer shell and the inner liner. This
material allows the shell to move around in relation to the liner, thereby
limiting the forces passed straight through to your head. The same way your
brain "floats" in the cerebrospinal fluid, your head floats inside
the helmet.
The MIPS system was designed specifically for oblique impacts where the
helmet hits the ground at an angle. According to company research, the mobile
shell protects the head more effectively on these types of falls. In fact, its
testing indicates that MIPS technology can reduce the forces to the brain by up
to 40 percent compared to other helmets on a 45-degree angle impact. Its vertical-impact
protection is comparable to traditional helmets.
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MIPS claims that standard helmet design is concerned only with vertical
impacts. According to its literature, helmet designers drop helmets vertically
onto the flat ground to determine how well they absorb impact. Of course, not
all falls result in your head dropping straight down into the ground. In fact,
we'd bet that most falls involve the very type of oblique impacts that MIPS
seeks to protect against. If you think about falling off a bike or on ski
slope, there's a good chance you aren't going to land squarely on your head,
but will knock your head at an angle.
MIPS licenses its technology to a variety of major helmet
manufacturers, including Scott, Red and POC. The technology is currently used
in bike, snow and equestrian helmets, and the company has plans to expand into
other types of helmets. MIPS CEO Niklas Steenberg says that the company hopes
that its technology will eventually be analogous to airbags in the auto
industry, a "non-negotiable ingredient" that is a part of all
products in its industry.
It looks like the classic foam bucket is becoming a thing of the past.
We recently covered Vaco12 helmet technology, which aims to spread impact
out across a three-dimensional array of beads. A couple years ago we saw
the Lazer Superskin, a sort of reverse-MIPS that put a
low-friction membrane on the outside of the helmet to decrease chance of
injuries.
The video below shows how the MIPS technology works.
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