Intel Helps Make Football Helmets Safer

We're pretty sure that finding a relation between chip manufacturer Intel and football (or American football, for those of you living this side of the pond) is not exactly an easy task, but the truth of the matter is that the two are actually related, the company that's behind most of the chips in our computers actually collaborating with industry experts and several universities to tackle the issue of football-related head injuries.

The main idea here is that, using supercomputers and workstations based on present and future Intel processor technology, researchers are simulating collisions to study the impact on the brain, and use that information to design new football helmets that reduce the risk of short- and long-term injuries.

Intel, working with Riddell, a designer and developer of helmets and protective equipment, and researchers from the Thayer School of Engineering (Dartmouth), Wayne State University, University of Northern Colorado and Texas State University-San Marcos, demonstrated simulations during an event at the SC10 conference in New Orleans.

In this demonstration, simulated impacts are processed on Intel Xeon Processor-based Workstations and Clusters, or a group of linked computers, to rapidly compute, visualize and assess the risk of injury in an impact event.

The simulations are based on computer models from partner universities, some of which include actual data from on-field impacts using the Riddell HITS (Head Impact Telemetry System), a proprietary in-helmet technology that provides real-time data regarding head impacts.

These models show visualization of the stresses on the brain and can allow for comparisons between impacts that are found to result in a concussion and similar impacts that cause no injury. "Computer simulations have been instrumental in designing improved brain injury criteria,” said Dr. Igor Szczyrba with the University of Northern Colorado.

“In the near future, they can also help doctors diagnose actual brain injuries.”

In fact, while no equipment can prevent 100 percent of injuries, Intel is also working with Mayo Clinic to accelerate the ability to process medical scans.

In this application, cranial scans running on Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture co-processors were accelerated by up to 18 times.

Of course, we're eagerly looking forward to seeing the results of this collaboration as soon as possible, given the fact that it could actually help make football a much safer sport than it currently is.