Sparring helmet that gradually changes color to indicate when one receives too many blows to the head
Image credit: BN Keep Doing
Darko SavicApr 14, 2022
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A sparring helmet that gradually changes color with each blow to the head. See when your opponent has had enough before real damage is inflicted.
Why?
Safer martial arts training. Prevent people from damaging each other while training.
A person might not feel they've had enough, but the helmet shows when they should take a break.
A person might not want to show they've had enough, but the helmet might indicate otherwise so the sparring partner will stop the fight.
It enables a friendly sparring game where you win by changing the color of the opponent's helmet. The required cumulative G-force is configurable. The game can be made to end in a few strikes or require a heavier beating.
How it works
A sparring helmet with built-in G-force sensors. The software keeps track of cumulative g-force since the beginning of the fight.
The fight begins with the helmet being one color. As the g-force adds up, different sections of the helmet change color - for example from black to orange. When the entire helmet turns orange, it's time to end the fight.
The battery and the computer on a chip is built into the back of the helmet.
E-ink technology is used to control the color via electric impulses. When it's time for a section to change color, it receives an electric impulse to change:
How much is too much?
I haven't done my research yet but I imagine there are all kinds of studies out there regarding how much abuse an average person's head can take before it becomes too dangerous. The helmet can be configured to follow the guidelines as determined in such studies.
An alternative would be to distribute hundreds of helmets to various fight clubs and record the data. Calculate an average cumulative g-force at which people take a break because they've had enough. Then take it down a few notches and set that as the default limit at which the helmet changes color.
Add an ability to configure the helmet limits via bluetooth/app.
A simpler version
Instead of using the changing color, the helmet could be full of LED diodes that gradually turn on as the cumulative G-force adds up.
This would also be a great tool for judging MMA and boxing fights that go to the decision. At least on an amateur level where they wear headgear.
For example: One fighter took 30 blows to the head and the G-Force he endured is X. While his opponent took 40 punches to the head, yet the G-Force he endured is smaller than the opponent's. I would say that the second fighter won the fight if all other metrics are the same (body punches, leg kicks, grappling...). It would be a way of qualifying head punches more precisely
I also feel that the G-force sensors could be built in shinguards as well. As a training tool to measure just how much an MMA fighter is effective with his low kicks during sparring. From then on to gauge whether it is a good weapon for him or not.
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Combine with gloves and shoes/socks
Spook LouwMay 02, 2022
Combining something like this (doesn't even need to change colour) with gloves and socks/shoes will allow fighters and coaches to record unprecedented and accurate data of a fighter's strikes.
Apart from being used for fighter safety, (data can be monitored live to help decide when a fighter has had enough) teams will also be able to get extremely detailed information on every strike. They would be able to measure how much force the impact had, but they would also be able to pinpoint aspects like what part of the fist initially made contact with the target, which would be useful to improve fighting technique.
I know that athletes already make use of a range of monitoring equipment to perfect the science of their respective sports, but I don't think I've seen anything like this yet.
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Darko Savic3 years ago
Also measuring the force in gloves and socks lets a fighter learn how much weaker his non-dominant arms and legs are so that they can focus more on training.
Darko Savic Apr 14, 2022
