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High tech football helmet with airbags
Posted: 04.25.2012 at 8:55 PM
Updated: 04.26.2012 at 7:10 AM
Rachel Welte

Rachel Welte is the Weekend News Anchor and a General Assignment Reporter.

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Troy Fodemski designed a football helmet with airbags inside.  / Courtesy: Troy Fodemski
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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Nowadays it seems everything is going high-tech.

Cars, cell phones, and even your kids' toys!

So why not a helmet?

A local entrepreneur has designed just that, a computer-driven football helmet designed to protect players' brains.

Troy Fodemski was watching an NFL game back in 2009 when the idea came to him.

A player was being carted off the field after getting hit hard in the head, which got him thinking about concussions.

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"I got to thinking, 'why would they not they have in a helmet some sort of electronics to measure the hits a player is getting,' and possibly a response system," Fodemski said.

An electrical engineer by trade, Fodemski sketched out a rough draft of his idea.

"The first thing that came to my mind was the car airbag, and what if you were to put miniature airbags inside the helmet that were controlled by a computer," he said.

Fodemski said that computer would then control the airbags, inflating and deflating them in certain areas of the helmet upon impact.

"The result of that would be a more precise and intelligent dampening of the forces," he said.

Fodemski's idea is patent approved, and has received recognition from several experts.

Now he and his partner are hoping the design will catch on.

"This idea could be used and incorporated in any activity that uses a helmet, and has external hits coming to the head," Fodemski said.

He said it is long overdue to bring electronics and computers to sports equipment, and added you can not replace your brain.

"If the athletes are going to continue to get bigger and stronger, even at the youth level, then we need to do something," Fodemski said.

The system would be set up so coaches could monitor the helmet's activity from the sideline.

As for cost, Fodemski said initially an individual helmet would cost between $750 and $1,000.

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