In last summer’s World Cup semifinal game against the Netherlands, Argentine defender Javier Mascherano collided heads with Georginio Wijnaldum. Mascherano looked woozy, stumbled for a few seconds and then collapsed onto the ground, holding his head with his palm. Minutes later, Mascherano returned to the game, having been “cleared” by the medical staff.
i1 Biometrics is a company dedicated to making sure that this does not happen in sports, having reaffirmed their commitment just today by announcing that they acquired Shockbox from Impakt Protective, Inc.
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Shockbox is an impact sensor technology that attaches to a player’s helmet via a Velcro strap. The technology uses Bluetooth to alert a coach or other team personnel with a Smartphone of head impacts that could result in concussions. The sensor will track the date, time, hit direction and force estimate of an impact, in addition to tracking the hit count details for each player. So, Shockbox takes away the unscientific guessing game of whether to pull a player from the game or not.
At this point, Shockbox is only designed for hockey, football, snow sports, lacrosse, horseback riding and BMX. Shockbox is available for $179 on Amazon.com.
With the arrival of Shockbox to i1 Biometrics, the company now adds to their already existing concussion detection technology. The Kirkland, Washington based company already boasted their Vector mouth guard before making this deal. The Vector uses an ESP chip to determine the location and level of each hit that an athlete takes. Accelerometers, gyroscopes, and microprocessors are all packed into the mouthguard to provide real-time decisions about whether or not a player should stay in the game. It also provides the athlete’s history of injury and exposure to concussions.
The primary difference between the Vector and the Shockbox is the audience for which the two are intended. The Shockbox is intended for mass consumption, and is readily available for anyone to use.