In impact sports, sudden head blows can be devastating, unless their effects are assessed immediately. Reebok Checklight is a head impact indicator that could literally save the lives of people playing such sports.
Reebok has been making hockey equipment for quite a while now, and considering how violent this sport can get sometimes, the company needed to come up with a solution to this problem. As preventing the players from hitting each other was impossible, Reebok had to find a way of minimizing the traumas caused by blows to the head. Sure, the helmets they make provide a lot of protection, but this is insufficient, sometimes. A head impact indicator needed to be developed in order to assess the real gravity, and this came in the form of Reebok Checklight.
In an interview with The Verge, Paul Litchfield, the VP of the advanced concept group, pointed out that “It’s not always the direct contact that causes the worst injuries to the brain. It’s also about how the head shakes afterwards and the rebound effect of the brain against the skull. I call it the bobble-head effect.”
Mind you, Reebok Checklight isn’t a helmet, but a sensor strip placed inside a skull cap that is put on the head before the actual helmet. The above picture should give you an idea about how it looks, and if that’s not detailed enough, the following video should shed more light. As the name of the device suggests, the seriousness of a head impact is assessed with the help of a color.
What’s curious is that Reebok and mc10, the company that helped the sports equipment manufacturer to make the head impact indicator, also showcased the Checklight at CES 2013. Since the current one doesn’t seem to be an updated version, I can only assume that the device didn’t get enough publicity in the past year. More than that, Reebok and mc10 even launched the device publicly back in July.
The price of $149.99 may seem steep at first, considering that the package only includes the sensor strip, a skull cap and a microUSB charger. Ultimately, though, it’s not about the contents of the package, but the functionality of the device, and since the Checklight has the potential of saving the lives of football and hockey players, equestrian jumpers and race-car drivers, in the end, the head impact indicator is worth a lot more than that.
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