Concussion Coach

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Overview

Concussions can have a severe and lasting impact on individual, and while coaches and athletes alike are aware of this danger, many concussions continue to go unrecognized. In football especially, concussions occur regularly due to the contact nature of the sport. While better protection and more careful playing an be used to prevent players from getting concussions, it is just as important to diagnose and treat concussions that do occur. Most concussions deliver ~95 g's to the body, so by measuring the amount of force applied to a player's head, the likelihood of a concussion could be monitored and the player could be checked when enough force was applied to cause a concussion.

Team Members

Colton Farley
Darby Hakken
Emma Zastrow

Objective

A successful project will require:

1. Accelerometers be installed in a football helmet in a way that force can be detected in all directions.

2. The encapsulation of the Arduino and any necessary battery packs and circuitry in the football helmet by creating a 3-D printed shell.

3. Use an Arduino to detect forces capable of causing a concussion and transmitting the signal to another Arduino.

4. Implementation of an interface to transmit Arduino data from all players to coaches.

Challenges

1. Being able to sense force equally throughout the helmet instead of distinct points where the accelerometer is located
2. Learning how to program an arduino and using it effectively
3. Learning how to use CAD and 3D print
4. Coding an interface to show an up to date status of the players helmets
5. Understanding radio frequencies and learning how to implement them frequently