HotHead Technologies, Inc., an Atlanta-based enterprise committed to improving athletic safety through research-based technology, announced it is working closely with Schutt Sports to develop a commercially viable heat-sensing helmet insert, which can detect potential heat stroke in a player in real-time.
“From the moment we began researching a way to prevent non-fatal and fatal injuries due to heatstroke, it has been our hope that the technology would find mass distribution through a relationship like this,” said HotHead CEO Jay Buckalew. “Placement of the Heat Observation Technology (H.O.T.) System in Schutt helmets will have a significant impact on the lives of these athletes.”
HotHead said developers at the company have spent years perfecting a dime-sized sensor that is expected to be implanted in the forehead pad of new and refurbished Schutt football helmets beginning this fall. The sensor will track the temperature trends of players on the field and send that data to a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) on the sidelines where it can be monitored in real-time. In the event a player's temperature rises above normal, an audible alert is set off to warn a coach or certified athletic trainer that the player should be evaluated and cooled down.
The company said while concussions and head injuries remain the most highly publicized injuries for football players, heat stroke and other heat-related problems are a very real threat to athletes and can be even more serious than other injuries.
“Yesterday's helmets were designed to simply protect players from head injuries,” said Schutt CEO Robert Erb. “Our association with HotHead Sports is part of our long-range effort to build “smart” helmets which protect the player as a whole. Thanks to the ground-breaking H.O.T.(TM) System, we hope to help coaches and athletic trainers take the guesswork out of whether or not a player is overheating.”
According to USA Football, more than 21 million Americans — from pee wee to the NFL — will play football this year. Overheating, especially among programs in the South, is an area of long-time concern for coaches, parents, certified athletic trainers and administration. Until now, they have never been able to accurately monitor the true temperature of an athlete on the field.
