Having gotten my bell rung a few times during my high-school glory days—I was a punter, natch—this gizmo really speaks to me. The halo-shaped sensor for Simbex’s Head Impact Telemetry System (at the bottom right of the image) fits inside the helmet, and measures the force of each tackle. For now it’s just being used to gather data on how concussions occur, but the hope is that HITS will someday help tweak each helmet’s design to protect a player’s uniquely sensitive zones. My favorite geek stat in this story: The hardest NFL hits surpass 150 Gs worth of force, which exceeds your typical car wreck. Probably best that I gave up the punting at 18, and now stick to Madden 2005.
Helmet tracks blows to head and pages doctor [The Electric New Paper]
