Two New Monitoring Devices Are Helping Athletes Stay Safe From Life Altering Concussions

By Angelise Stuhl , 09/01/15, 7:45PM EDT

Head related traumas are some of the most common and most dangerous injuries that occur among athletes in the sports world. Often times, signs and effects from concussions occur days or even years after a hit. This is why identifying them is becoming more and more difficult for doctors, coaches, athletic trainers and parents. Luckily, Triax Technologies Inc., a company dedicated to developing and marketing products to ensure the safety of athletes, recently released two products, the SIM-G and SIM-P, to help monitor and prevent head injuries.

The SIM-G is a cloud-based radio frequency system that is designed to monitor an entire sports team by collecting real time data. The data is collected by a 1.27 inch monitor that is placed in a customized headband or skullcap. By using their smart phone or pad, a coach or athletic trainer is able to detect which players are getting hit and at what force in only 20 milliseconds. Thus enabling athletes to get immediate medical attention if a serious hit occurs during practice or a game.

“Most of our customers that use the SIM-G are at the college and high school level,” said Chad Hollingsworth, Vice President of Business Development and co-founder of Triax Technologies. “One thing we learned as we were running our testing early on was that there were a lot of parents coming up to us asking, ‘Hey could I buy one for my child?’ So we decided to take what we made for the team version and make a Bluetooth version for individual usage, called the SIM-P.”

Trial SIM-P™ (Smart Impact Monitor) is the first device of its kind to earn the Hit Count® certification in all sports categories - Photo Curtesy of Triax

By using the Triax SIM-P smart phone application, parents are now able to accurately understand what is going on inside their kid’s head when they are playing sports. Whether parents personally witness a hit while watching their child play or hear about a hit at practice, the SIM-P’s internal memory can store up to 180 separate events. Using Bluetooth, the SIM-P will then upload all collected data to the parent’s corresponding cellular device when it’s in vicinity. The mobile App, now available for both Android and iOS devices, allows parents to create customizable profiles for their children in order to keep track of all head related injuries throughout their athletic careers.

“One of the reasons Triax is closely tied to concussion awareness is because we have had family members whose lives have been altered due to head injuries while playing sports,” said Hollingsworth. “It’s a way for trainers to have another set of eyes on the field because you are doing everything at the cutting edge of technology to monitor hits. It’s also a way for parents to keep a peace of mind.”

Abby Wambach teaches proper heading technique to young player wearing the Triax SIM-P. - Image Curtesy of Triax

Both monitoring devices contain a 3-axis high-g linear accelerometer, which can measure three to 400G’s, and a 3-axis gyroscope, which measures the rotational acceleration of each impact. The devices are also designed to teach coaches how to properly implement skills that involve the head, particularly in reference to soccer.

“In soccer, if someone heads the ball the wrong way the device will record a higher force because of the bad technique. The technology can tell coaches who is not using the proper technique in order to teach them how to head the ball properly,” said Hollingsworth.

Triax made a goal to not only create devices to monitor head injuries but to also provide an educational outlet for athletes, parents and coaches to learn more about concussions. Their webpage entitled “HeadOn” displays facts and tips in order to properly teach athletes how to prevent, treat and recover from a concussion. According to Triax’s HeadOn information page, 1.6 to 3.8 million sport related concussions occur per year. In order to raise awareness about the importance of head safety, the company partnered with Abby Wambach, two-time gold medalist and current member of the United States women’s national team.

“Abby is known for scoring a lot of goals with her head, so having her really complements our brand and the safety awareness we want to raise,” said Hollingsworth. “She see’s what we are doing as a way to promote safety in soccer. When she retires, she wants to make this part of her legacy where she can go around to promote playing soccer at a high and safe level. So it was a mutual interest to get the word out about our new devices that parents and coaches can utilize to make the game safer.”

This fall Triax is predicting to have more than 5 thousand users worldwide for both team and individual usage. Since launching last year, high schools, universities and professional leagues from across the country use the SIM-P and SIM-G, including the Northwest Nationals Premier Soccer Club and Major League Lacrosse.

The SIM-P is available to be purchased here for around $189. Buyers have the option of purchasing a skullcap for helmeted sports, like football, ice hockey and lacrosse or a headband for non-helmeted sports like boxing, cheerleading, soccer and rugby. The caps and headbands come in a variety of colors. They are also waterproof and can be utilized for water polo, skiing and other extreme sports. Each purchased device also comes with a charging station. With only one charge the SIM-P and SIM-G can last for two full weeks.

Ultimately, the SIM-G and SIM-P monitoring devices developed by Triax can help parents and coaches keep their athletes safe while enabling them to keep playing the sports they love.

“Keeping people healthy and active while playing sports is our ultimate goal,” said Hollingsworth. “Our hope is that every kid playing a contact sport is wearing some type of sensor to objectively measure hits to make sports as safe to play as possible. The answer is not to keep from being active, but learning how to keep active while playing safe.”

-Article previously featured on SportTechie.com