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Helmet Lab puts snow sport helmets to the test

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Category: research Video duration: Helmet Lab puts snow sport helmets to the test
The Virginia Tech Helmet Lab has released ratings for snow sports helmets, the first to evaluate how effectively headgear worn by skiers and snowboarders protects against head injuries like concussion. The researchers, lead by associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics Steve Rowson, combed through hours of footage to study how these athletes hit their heads in real-world events, and then recreated those impacts in the lab to measure how 35 helmets on the market stack up against each other. This is the seventh major ratings release for the lab, which has been redefining sports safety since they first published ratings for varsity football helmets in 2011. 
We're in Helmet Lab about to release our SN2 scored comment ratings. Our initial release includes 35 comments that we chose to represent a variety of cost brands and anti rotation technology. There's a standard which specifies whether or not a 100 safe to be sold. But that's just talking about catastrophic injury. This program tells people which how much safer than the other helmet so they can make informed decisions when purchasing home it. The first thing we needed to do is figure out how skiers and snowboarders hit their heads. So we work with us in snow, and it's a video of people falling during aerial events. We did advanced computer analysis to quantify impact conditions, figure out how hard they hit their head, where they hit their head. And then we took that information and we simulated in the laboratory. One of the most important elements of our test protocol is simulating that impact surface, surface frictions are really important variable. So we have to worry about them putting snow and ice which has lower friction. Sometimes it's not compacted, sometimes it's really compacted. So we took all that into account as you develop the test method. We didn't see a strong correlation. Right arm and some of the best Thomas, the top rated comments had similar price points as some of the comments in the bottom half the readings. The top rated helminths, that a really good job at limiting rotation of the head and its performance decrease. We saw more and more rotation, but the linear forces rose to, when we get to the bottom of the list that was homeless had sharp edges and maybe more higher friction surfaces that increased irritation to the head and that's showing readings.