Patent Application
20240164465
The field of the present invention relates generally to head impact protection helmets, and in particular to helmets having capabilities to reconfigure rotational forces to helmet peripheries away from the head impacted as well as replace damaged absorbing layers quickly for helmet reuse.
The primary purpose of a helmet is to protect the user's head. A helmet typically includes a hard outer shell and one or more energy absorbing layers. The outer shell is designed to distribute forces over the shell area to distribute the energy over a greater volume of the energy absorbing layers. These usually have a compressible material that absorbs impact energy by distorting and absorbing the impact using the resilient and/or compressible properties of the material or by crushing and absorbing energy by material fracture.
Conventional helmets are primarily designed to manage direct or normal forces to a helmet and are less effective at managing shear or rotational forces. Various solutions intended to manage rotational motions have been developed and proposed, such as providing a slippery surface material to cover the helmet thereby decreasing friction between the surface of the helmet and the impacting object. Other solutions include the use of low friction layer between the helmet shell and an inner head-gripping member, or a layer that consists of a gel, liquid or other soft material between the shell and liner, or other layers of materials, to allow the outer shell to rotate and/or slide horizontally independent of the liner or the user's head.
There are many helmet designs as head injures abound in many different activities and uses requiring the safety of perhaps different helmet designs. Taking a spill, hit or flying object to the brain on the street or playground can be a life changing injury.
Some consumer helmets prevent some injury via lightweight yet rigid insulating foam called Expanded Polystyrene, or EPS. Crashing on a bicycle and hitting ones head into something rigid, the foam reduces the amount of energy that would enter the skull by deflecting and redistributing that impact away from any one area of the skull. The more that the direction and magnitude of the impact is redistributed and reduced, the more likely the impact will be spread over a larger area when it impacts the skull. In some instances, this protection does a good job of preventing cracks to the skull that could be sustained during a fall or play.
But styrofoam-like, EPS, helmets are far from good enough for several reasons. Often they are meant to be used once per large impact as in the event of a crash, the outer shell cracks, and the EPS foam takes that crushing blow by deforming and absorbing the force, thereby reducing the impact to the skull. Further, the foam inside is either incapable of bouncing back, or it's impossible to tell the extent of its damage. Often one protective blow to the head is all the helmet can take before it is useless protection against future concussions.
In more recent years, researchers have also found that simply distributing energy at the point of impact is not the most ideal way to prevent a concussion. EPS helmets mainly absorb energy in a helmet's normal direction, or directly on. But that leaves the tangent component direction free to cause most of the damage in concussions. What is often the case, is that the head turns and pivots and its this rotational-style concussion that poses the most danger. Inside the brain, cerebrospinal fluid which is typically the brain's natural protection, shifts and allows the head to jostle around unprotected, irritating and potentially damaging the delicate nerves inside.
In the last few decades researchers have begun to better understand head injuries, particularly concussions, but only the most recent prior art designs contain designs and methods for absorbing rotational energy from an impact, which is largely responsible for dangerous concussions. What is needed are helmet designs that can absorb energy continuously with accommodation for material absorption deformation. What is needed are helmet devices that repel the impact of rotation or divert its force away from adding rotational energy to the brain.
One example of a rotation energy reducing technology is MIPS, an acronym for multi-directional impact protection system. The MIPS technology teaches a shell layer that acts as a human body's natural cerebrospinal fluid. Rather than reducing the impact of direct or normal force, as the foam helmets do, MIPS works to redirect the impact of rotational forces from angled impacts. MIPS is essentially a thin liner. When placed between it and the helmet's hard shell, it creates a low friction layer which allows the helmet to slide back and forth just like your body's natural fluid cushioning.
As some researchers found, impacts causing head rotation can be far more damaging to the brain than direct, normal to the head, collisions. Repeated helmet impacts reach a certain high energy impact, and friction starts to build between the MIPS layer and the EPS layers in the helmet such that resistance in the layers is unable to deflect that rotational energy anymore. As impacts continue, and sufficient friction builds, the layers bind up, and too much energy starts to reach the brain.
What is needed are designs that prevents friction from building by transferring the energy rotationally as it starts to build up to another structure which bypasses the head altogether. What is needed are more effective ways for reusing helmets with damaged EPS foam, usesless at preventing concussions from head collisions whether on the street, field or on the playground.
The present invention discloses a concussion resistant smart helmet with a perforated outer shell and perforated regions or openings is disclosed. The outer is shell coupled to helmet edges adjacent to a neck or shoulders for transferring loads away from the wearer's head. An inner shell is coupled to the helmet edges adjacent to a neck or shoulders and rigidly coupled to the outer shell at the edges. A layer of independently slidable freely in all directions tiles are snuggly fitted between the inner and outer shells with the tiles protruding the outer shell perforated regions proving sliding stops and the tiles having polygonal shape commensurate with margins to each tile accommodating outer shell protrusion region. The slidable tiles have spring-like material spacers separating them but allowing for transferring any tangential component forces from impacts to travel from tile to tile. An restorable energy absorbing layer is snuggle coupled between the inner shell and a helmet wearer's head such that external force impacts to the helmet are decoupled to normal and tangential components in the helmet layers, tangential component forces are redirected to the helmet edges and the normal component forces are distributed and absorbed by the absorbing layer. The absorbing inner layer boundary is fitted with 3D force sensors and wifi logic for recording all impacts reaching the head.
Specific embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the following figures.
In the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the description.
Objects and Advantages
The concussion resistant smart helmet disclosed herein addresses the above needs and concerns in the following manner.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention is to provide concussion resistant smart helmet by decoupling the normal and tangential component force impacts and manage them separately.
Another object of the invention is to provide an impact decoupling mechanism to redirect tangential component forces from external helmet impacts to helmet edges for absorption by neck or shoulder pads.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a removable replaceable energy absorbing layer.
It is an objective of the invention to create a smart helmet, one capable of recording impacts and notification of absorption layer replacement.
It is yet another object of the invention to record all absorption layer normal force impacts for magnitude of and cumulative concussive force history.
The present invention discloses several embodiments for making a concussion resistant smart helmet.
Helmet concussion resistance is designed into an embodiment of the invention of a smart helmet by decoupling the normal and tangential component force impacts by the outer layers slidable property of deflecting tangential force components away from a helmet users head, thus removing any potential rotational energy from reaching the head.
Layer composition is of major concern along with structural mechanics. Graphene is the strongest material ever tested. Materials testing have shown that graphene showed a greater ability to distribute force from an impact than any known material, ten times that of steel per unit weight. Therefore it is a very good candidate for materials used for making the outer layer tougher and lighter than conventional helmet materials used, providing added strength against very high impact loads which would otherwise penetrate the outer layer and cause damage in the normal component of the force.
A slidable tile or platelet 309 can be made of plastic, composite, graphite coating, graphene-titanium, graphene layers, synthetics, metal and combinations. The spring-like interstitial material 303 is made from materials including but not limited to rubber, foam, composites, elastic synthetic and combinations. In some embodiments a liner 313 bounding an absorbing layer 314 can have smart sensors 321 for recording forces affecting the head. The sensors will be 3D force or acieration sensors 315 with memory 317, wifi logic 318 and power 319.
An absorbing layer top 503 and side or base 505 are snap or screw coupled at a snug fit edge 509 between the top 503 and base 505 absorbing layer 501 providing for replacement of damaged absorbent layer 503505. In an embodiment of the invention an absorbent layer base 505 is rotatably coupled to a helmets neck/shoulder edge 507. The top 503 of the absorbent layer can be of deformable energy absorbing material and structure previously mentioned.
Through the course of its life, the absorption layer is expected to absorb impacts through physical deformation of its material and structure. Absorbing material can be made of combination of Styrofoam, honey comb, FOAM, composites, plastic-rubber, fluidic spheres and is replaceable when called for by removing a damaged absorption layer and replacing it with an undamaged absorbing layer. The 3D force sensor 510 logic measuring, recording and storing the actual brain reaching impacts can have limits set to inform wearers when the helmet has been compromised.
Replacing the absorbent layer at end of life is managed through sensor(s) 510517 securely affixed in the absorber layer lining adjacent to user, such that impact magnitudes reaching the user are recorded and a time history 511 of impacts can be read from wireless devices from sensor 517 stored memory 519 and wifi logic 521 transmission, powered by rechargeable power 523. In replaceable absorbent layers embodiments there may be at least one 3D force or 3D accelerometer sensor 517 coupled to electrical power 523, memory 519 and wifi 521 logic for digitally recording helmet individual and cumulative impact forces reaching the bottom of the absorbing layer 503.
Therefore, while the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this invention, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein. Other aspects of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.
