For the introductory comments on this topic please see the page named: Other Topics
DISCLAIMER
Again, I wish to repeat, this is a discussion website, I feel that this topic addresses an item that clearly would be dangerous and unethical if improperly developed or implemented. I advise that no person or organization should attempt to make any of this item or to implement any part of it for actual use unless that person or organization first obtains all appropriate legal permissions and authorities to do so. In addition, I always advise, this, and all things should always be developed and used in a manner that is safe, reasonable, ethical and appropriate. pg
DISCLAIMER
The recent concerns about injuries arising from repeated episodes of head trauma related to football bring to mind another environment where the possibility of cumulative risk must be monitored.
The nuclear industry must monitor and react to radiation exposure that is above the normal exposure rates from the environment. The principle that controls this monitoring is the use of a simple product. This product creates a permanent record of the total radiation exposure that a person has experienced during any particular job event. This exposure “tag” or “card” is worn by the worker at all times that the worker is in the work environment where radiation exposure may occur. On a regular basis, usually monthly, the cumulative radiation dose received by the monitoring tag (and by inference, received by the worker’s body) is determined by a device that can “read” the radiation dose tag.
In order for this protective system to work, exceptional penalties are layered onto both the worker and the employer to make it very unlikely that either the worker will try to work in a radiation exposure environment without wearing the exposure card or that the employer will attempt to have a work environment where these cumulative radiation exposure cards are not used.
This system has worked well for helping to ensure radiation related safety for those workers in the fields where there is a potential for radiation exposure.
Could there be created such a system for the monitoring of the “acceleration-deceleration” stresses on a human brain ? Absolutely this can be done.
Acceleration-deceleration monitoring technology is well established and robust. Technology to create a unique identification number for a transistor circuit is well established and robust. All that is needed is to combine these two technologies into a single product.
I feel the computer motherboard industry in just a few months work could create a battery powered “chip” that measures acceleration and deceleration at the force levels appropriate for human brains in a football environment. This chip could easily be fabricated so it contains in the matrix of the chip an embedded set of very tiny wires whose integrity are monitored by the chip. Any attempt to alter or “defeat” the chip would sever some or all of these wires and the chip’s internal monitoring systems would detect and report these attempts to corrupt the proper functioning of the chip. The chip could easily be given a unique identifier number as assigned to it by a regulatory body in the sports world. The effect of all this would be that any attempt to alter, disable, or “re-identify” the chip would be immediately detected and reported by the chip.
I feel this whole chip would be about the size of 5 quarters stacked on top of each other.
The principle of monitoring would be simple. Every regulated form of football, beginning at the 1st grade level and including all of elementary school, high school, college, and “official type” football leagues would be required to use these acceleration-deceleration monitoring chips for every player for every game, or practice. The chips would be attached to the football helmets of the players. All players would have their own unique identifier number and this would stay with the player for their entire life.
Coaches would be required to measure each player’s acceleration-deceleration values on a regular basis, for example weekly. Coaches would be required to alter the behavior of their team if cumulative values for the team were outside of levels specified by sports regulatory bodies, and coaches would be required to alter the playing habits of individuals who had acceleration-deceleration cumulative values that were too high (as specified by sports regulatory bodies).
Finally, at the professional football level, I feel there is enough money available for a special set of chips to be used. These chips would have embedded radio output capability and would “send out” an acceleration-deceleration” value for each player in real time during all games.
These real time values would be followed during all the games and sports regulatory bodies would promulgate values as follows:
- For cumulative team values that exceed the limit, the game would be stopped and that team would be declared as losing the game.
- For individual player values, if any one player exceeded a specified value, then that player would be required to stop playing for the entirety of the rest of that game.
This product and its supporting equipment can be made. And this equipment can be constructed so that it cannot be tampered without the expenditure of exceptional amounts of money.
I feel the computer science and mechanical science departments of any major university would be eager to create this system