This innovative sports tech measures head impact force while you play

Interested in knowing how much force your body takes from a hit during sports? Then the HIT Impact wearable tech and app might be for you. You can wear this high-tech sports wearable with any headgear, no matter your age, to gain an understanding of forced impact and precautions you can take against it.

HIT Impact wearable tech and app on a helmet

Protect yourself while you play impact or recreational sports with this innovative sports tech wearable. It’s a head impact detection device that clips onto any helmet and measures g-forces to the head, or wherever you place this device, during impact. Because if Concussion showed us anything, it’s that the repercussions of sports-induced trauma to the head are worth preventing. The makers of the HIT Impact wearable tech hope to improve impact detection across all activities for all ages, so users can see an interpretable number of the force on their head during a hit and take steps to avoid it.

The HIT Impact is shaped like a small wheel and is discrete enough for players to add to any helmet or headgear they already wear. According to the company, this sports gadget can be worn universally across all sports and activities and won’t interfere with performance. Thanks to its TPU outer shell, the HIT Impact has a rugged, flexible case so that it can stand up to your favorite sport, from rugby to football. It links to a companion app that measures and tracks your impacts.

How does this head impact detection device work?

Once you clip this innovative sports tech wearable onto any helmet, it calculates the combined x, y, and z axis to create an easy-to-understand g-force interpretation number for the player to review in the HIT companion app. There, you can see a reading of head impact force or wherever you’ve placed the HIT Impact to the body. The reading occurs instantly and lets you know when it records a significant impact.

Get visual cues of an impact’s severity

Impacts to the head go missed and unchecked for a variety of reasons during play. This innovative sports tech helps to create a visual cue—red flashing from the device—when it detects a large impact force. This way, users and their teammates can see when they’ve had a bad hit. Players also get a notification from the app with a numerical interpretation of the inflicted force. This gives you a clear indication of the impact’s severity and encourages you to take caution. While the interpretations don’t diagnose a concussion, the tool can educate you on impact force levels and help you take precautions when you experience a ‘threshold’ impact. So it’s a pretty practical wearable gadget.

Receive notifications from the companion app

The HIT companion app is compatible with Android and iOS. It uses a traffic light system to interpret head impact: green for low impact, yellow for medium impact, and red for threshold force and above. The idea is that high impacts should encourage players to continue their exercise with caution. Too many yellow impacts also result in a red indication. The company’s Kickstarter page writes that the device and app aren’t medical devices and don’t claim to tell or prompt users to check for a concussion or similar head injuries. Rather, this innovative sports tech records impact force where you place the device.

See your impact history on your profile with this sports impact detection device

Each of your recordings is logged and stored under your user profile along with your age, weight, height, sport, and position. Here, you can also choose your impact threshold. While the device comes with recommended threshold settings, you might desire different presets depending on your age or activity. So you have the flexibility to set and record what you want, making HIT Impact entirely customizable to you.

Answer yes/no questions to record how you feel

After an impact, you’ll be asked if you want to answer a yes/no question for symptoms. This lets you keep track of your impacts and how they made you feel. They’re entirely optional and for your use only. The recorded information helps you make decisions about how you play in the future.

Learn about how your data will be used

This innovative sports tech records impacts to the body. The information that the device collects is accessed autonomously, with none of your personal information made visible. One of HIT Impact’s goals is to create a bank of information that could point to trends in sports and activities for universities and medical and sports research teams. Players who implement this sports wearable provide invaluable data on sports’ trauma and its potential risks. Check out the company’s Kickstarter page to learn more about how researchers could use your impact data.

Choose a wearable that’s certified

You won’t have to worry about injury while wearing the HIT Impact. As wearable tech, it follows strict regulations and certification. Along with their partners, the company has acquired the necessary certification for HIT Impact. It has been tested by TÜV SÜD for FCC section 15 approval and registration and UKAS/IECEE.

The HIT Impact wearable tech and app are what you and your team need to learn more about the side effects of force on the body inflicted by sports. This device features an unobtrusive, easy-to-use design that works universally on headgear for any sport and age. It translates force to the head into a visible cue and understandable number to inform users about the hits they’ve taken during a game. The information gathered can help you make better decisions about your play.

The HIT Impact wearable tech and app are available for preorder on Kickstarter, and pledges start at $83.55. Do you participate in any recreational or impact sport? If so, does your team take steps to measure impact? We’d love to hear about it in the comment section.