The Triax Smart Impact Monitor measures impacts sustained while playing sports. Image credit: Triax Technologies
Triax Technologies, a product development company which makes smart sensors to monitor impacts sustained while playing sports, has teamed up with IBM’s Watson supercomputer to study how athletes get concussions.
Triax aims to reduce the amount of concussive and sub-concussive impacts in sports. In order to do this, they will use cognitive computing APIs from the Watson platform and leverage Watson’s Personality Insights API to better understand athletes’ behavior and decision-making. Personality Insights will be able to quantify behaviors such as response to head impacts, treatments, and the decision to return to play after a head impact.
“Partnering with IBM to tap into Watson not only validates our past achievements, but offers unmatched cognitive computing capabilities that we need to advance our platform to support more of today’s athletes who are raising the bar every day,” said Chad Hollingsworth, co-founder and president of Triax Technologies. “Quantifying hits to the head was an enormous step for understanding concussions, and now, with Triax powered by IBM Watson, it is just the beginning.”
Concussion research and best practices in sports, from youth clubs to professional teams, are always evolving and changing. Triax’s Smart Impact Monitor gathers data about trends in an athlete’s career that could signify risky behavior or improper, potential dangerous technique. The monitor is worn in a headband or skullcap, and tracks the force and frequency of head impacts. Parents or coaches can store up to 180 separate events in the device’s memory, which also automatically synchs data to the Triax app.
The company’s ultimate goal is to use the data to encourage a “call to action,” making players more aware of steps they can take to actively reduce the chance of head injuries.
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