One of the biggest universal problems in sports today, especially among the younger athletes, is concussions; more specifically, the issue of having a concussion, and not even knowing it.
Over the years, there have been many innovations that have helped prevent concussions. However, there hasn’t been much of a movement in the field of immediate concussion detection. This issue could lead to further head injuries for those athletes that can be life-altering and possibly fatal in the worst cases.
With the Linx Impact Assessment System, this problem is coming to a quick resolution. Linx IAS is an impact monitoring system that allows anyone, including coaches, parents, and players to measure the severity of a potential head injury within milliseconds of the impact. The system was developed by BlackBox Biometrics, Inc., which has done a lot of work in this field for the military and the police force.
The system works quite simply. A small device with an integral USB is worn inside a specially designed headband or skull cap. This device has Bluetooth technology that sends data from every single impact the athlete receives to the companion app that is accessible on your smartphone or tablet. There are no cords that come with this device; it simply slides into the headband or skull cap and starts recording.
The device stores all impacts an athlete receives when using the system, and provides instantaneous feedback regarding the nature of the injury. If the impact is not severe, the application will display a green message, letting the coach or parent know the impact was sustained and and the likelihood of injury is low. If the impact had enough force to potentially cause a concussion, the sensor will identify that and flash a red message on the screen. This red message will alert the coach or parent to immediately administer the built in sideline test.
This feature of the Linx IAS system is the most vital one by far. The instantaneous notification of a possible concussion can prevent thousands of more serious injuries by getting the athlete checked out immediately; and more importantly, removing him from the field of play and further harm.
Most serious head injuries occur to athletes who have already suffered head trauma and are either playing through it because they don’t feel the effects yet, or they have come back too soon from the initial injury. This system prevents that, because the person monitoring the application is notified of any potential concussion within seconds, and can remove the athlete from any further harm. Additionally, the Linx system is also capable of recording the accumulation of a player’s hits to the heads. This is a key component of the system as often it is not one single hit to the head that causes the long-term damage, but repeated hits over a long period of time.
Other features of this system include: a history view, which stores all records for the specific athlete in the cloud. This feature allows all the athletes’ data to be easily shared and accessible with a coach, doctor, or trainer at any time. Any hit, injury, or impact can be instantly viewed and brought up for evaluation. There is a team view as well, which allows the coaches and team parents to watch updates for over 128 players at the same time.
The other important feature this system provides is a post-impact sideline test. If a yellow or red message appears on the app, the user has the option of administering a sideline test to check for signs and symptoms of a concussion. The app guides the user through a cognitive and concussion-symptom test immediately following the impact. This gives a parent, coach or athletic trainer an objective measurement of the potential effects of the impact and can be shared with medical personnel.
The Linx IAS system is a huge advance in the world of concussion detection, and will go hand-in-hand with other devices that help prevent and detect concussions, such as the Mamori mouthguard. These devices will find ways to improve each other, and make it so athletes can be treated as quickly and efficiently as possible when they suffer a head injury. This system has the potential to create a major reduction in severe head injuries. More importantly, however, it has the potential to reduce the number of fatal injuries for young athletes who are playing with undiscovered head injuries.
This system will be available for purchase by end of Q1.