A SPORTS helmet that raises the alarm if a player suffers concussion is being developed in the hope that it will change behaviour on the pitch.
The Contego, designed by University of Brighton student Nik Hannay, carries sensors that pick up changes to skull pressure and switches on a red light if a concussion is detected.
It also flashes red if there are signs of serious injury, a university spokesman said.
Players and referees would instantly see the light and call for medical assistance, and coaches and doctors on the touchline would be alerted by a signal to laptops, tablets and smart phones.
Mr Hannay, 24, who is in his final year of a sustainable product design degree, came up with the idea during a visit to America.
His research revealed 100,000 concussion injuries in the National Football League every year, 60% from head-to-head clashes.
He has developed Contego mainly for American football players, but said there is potential for the technology to be used in sports such as boxing, cycling, lacrosse and ice hockey.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article