What orignally started at Virginia Tech as research on football helmets only, now will include different types of sports.
Five different sports in all.
One machine measures what's called "rotational acceleration." The crushing force on a hockey helmet is more than 40 times the acceleration of gravity.
For 10 years, researchers from Tech's bio-medical department engineering department, have been studying how to make football helmets safer. Researcher Stefan Duma says helmets for baseball, softball, hockey and lacrosse, are also now being studied. "The bottom line is all these sports, people are buying equipment and there's no independant data. We want to fill that void and provide independant data so consumers coaches, players and trainers can look and see what helmet reduces acceleration the best."
Virginia Tech says it's trying to help create a rating system for helmets, so parents, coaches and athletes, can figure which helmet's are safest.
Five different sports in all.
One machine measures what's called "rotational acceleration." The crushing force on a hockey helmet is more than 40 times the acceleration of gravity.
For 10 years, researchers from Tech's bio-medical department engineering department, have been studying how to make football helmets safer. Researcher Stefan Duma says helmets for baseball, softball, hockey and lacrosse, are also now being studied. "The bottom line is all these sports, people are buying equipment and there's no independant data. We want to fill that void and provide independant data so consumers coaches, players and trainers can look and see what helmet reduces acceleration the best."
Virginia Tech says it's trying to help create a rating system for helmets, so parents, coaches and athletes, can figure which helmet's are safest.
