The US Army this week said soldiers will this month start using helmet-mounted sensors that will detect and measure impact blasts from roadside bombs and other potential head-trauma inducing activities.
The sensors, also known as dosimeters, gather data on impacts ranging from a dropped or kicked helmet to a vehicle crash to a nearby weapon firing or explosion, the Army said. They measure two specific actions: the energy wave generated by and explosion or other jolt and the acceleration that follows. In the short term, data collected through the sensors is expected to help the Army improve the helmets and other protective equipment it provides its soldiers, the Army said. Ultimately the Army wants to use the sensor data to help diagnose traumatic brain injuries.
Soldiers operating in Iraq and Afghanistan are routinely exposed to blasts from roadside bombs. Though many of those soldiers escape visible injury, medical experts increasingly are concerned about the long-term effects of mild head trauma, according to an article in the Army Times. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody ordered the battlefield test of dosimeters after learning about the technology during a visit earlier this year to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s nanotechnology laboratory, the Times said.
The externally attached sensor hooks to the back of the combat helmet, protected by a hardened casing that is covered by a camouflage flap. It weights about 6 ounces and has a six-month battery life, the Army said.
The sensor remains in sleep mode, automatically turning on and capturing data from an event, then turning off. It has enough memory to store data on 527 events between downloads. To download the sensor, a soldier simply connects it to a computer using a USB port, hits "save" and sends the data to a secure database. An internally mounted model sits under the padding in the crown of the helmet.About 1,200 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division preparing to deploy to Afghanistan are being issued the external sensors.
The Army has been trying to get an upper hand on the roadside bombs that have plagued warfighters in Afghanistan and Iraq. Recently it opened its latest Humvee Egress Assistance Trainer, or HEAT, a machine that simulates a Humvee rollover and helps soldiers practice escaping safely from an inverted vehicle. About 250 U.S. troops have been severely injured in rollovers since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in March 2003, with 90 of them dying from their injuries, according to a U.S. Army report released in 2006.
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