Head Impact Sensor Registration via Anatomical Landmarks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods fail to accurately detect and characterize head impacts in athletes, particularly in contact sports, leading to risks of concussive traumatic brain injuries and long-term neurological deficits due to the lack of effective monitoring systems for kinematics and kinetics at specific locations on the head.
Innovation Solution
A sensor assembly is registered to a desired location on the head using a daisy-chain registration process, which determines the position and orientation of sensors relative to anatomical landmarks, allowing for accurate measurement of linear and angular accelerations, velocities, and orientations, and communicates this data to an observer via an output device.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a sensor assembly is placed on the head to detect head impacts, then head impact detection capability is improved, but accurate positioning and orientation registration relative to anatomical landmarks becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces anatomical landmarks as intermediary reference points that facilitate the registration process. These landmarks serve as mediators between the sensor assembly and the head, enabling accurate positioning without direct complex measurements. The landmarks provide a simplified reference framework that makes the registration process more manageable while maintaining high measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary registration of the sensor assembly to anatomical landmarks before actual impact detection. This preliminary action establishes the position and orientation relationships in advance, creating a reference framework that simplifies subsequent measurements. The registration process determines transformation parameters beforehand, so that during impact detection, the system can directly use these pre-established relationships without performing complex real-time calculations.
2Loss of information
If multiple sensors are used to measure linear and angular accelerations at different locations, then measurement completeness is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a multi-functional sensor assembly that integrates multiple sensor types (accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers) into a single unified system. This universal sensor unit can simultaneously measure linear acceleration, angular velocity, and magnetic field orientation, eliminating the need for separate sensor assemblies for each measurement type. The single sensor assembly performs multiple functions, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining complete kinematic data collection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple measurement functions into a single integrated sensor assembly. Rather than using separate devices for linear acceleration, angular acceleration, and orientation measurement, the system merges these functions into one co-located sensor unit. This consolidation simplifies the physical system architecture, reduces the number of components, and facilitates easier registration since all sensors share a common reference point, while still capturing complete kinematic information through data fusion.
3Reliability
If real-time acceleration data is calculated and communicated to observers, then safety monitoring capability is improved, but data processing and communication requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements selective data processing by calculating and transmitting only relevant impact parameters rather than all raw sensor data. The system identifies significant impact events based on predefined thresholds and criteria, processing and communicating only those data points that exceed safety thresholds. This partial action approach maintains reliable safety monitoring by focusing computational resources on critical events, thereby reducing overall energy consumption while preserving essential safety monitoring capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are provided for registering a sensor assembly, implemented on a base apparatus, to a desired location associated with a head of a user. A position of a reference point on the base apparatus is determined relative to an external anatomical landmark of the user. A position of the external anatomical landmark is determined relative to the desired location. The position and orientation of the sensor assembly is determined relative to the desired location according to the determined position and orientation of the sensor assembly relative to the reference point, the determined position of the reference point relative to the external anatomical landmark, and the position of the external anatomical landmark relative to the desired location.