Jolt Sensor Detects Concussion Risk in Real Time

The Jolt Sensor is a wearable device that provides head impact tracking in real time, alerting athletes to seek medical attention when it detects a dangerous blow to the head.

The Jolt Sensor is one of the innovative solutions created at MIT that had a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter this year. The device is a sensor that can objectively measure the quantity and magnitude of head impact forces in soccer, hockey, football, and other sports. The sensor is designed to alert athletes when a bump or blow to the head is forceful enough to require medical assessment. The device itself can't diagnose a concussion, but it can direct wearers to seek more timely medical attention when a dangerous impact is detected.

More often than not, a concussion occurs without loss of consciousness, but as it is a type of traumatic brain injury (TBI), it can have serious consequences, including death, if not recognised early. Timely response can prevent the injury from becoming more serious and the Jolt Sensor is designed to address this risk. The device enables athletes, coaches, and parents to act decisively immediately after a dangerous impact, before the brain is exposed to additional injuries.

Jolt is a small clip that can be attached to a sweatband, baseball cap, helmet, goggles, headgear, or any other piece of head-worn equipment, to provide real-time head impact tracking. When the sensor detects the wearer's head accelerating in a dangerous way, it vibrates, alerting the wearer to a potentially risky impact. The sensor connects wirelessly to smartphones and has a range of more than a hundred yards, allowing parents to track impact from the sidelines and coaches to monitor their entire team simultaneously.

The Jolt app has a cognitive test and a concussion symptom checklist, and it sends these along with the impact data to the smartphone. Players showing any signs of a concussion should not expose themselves to risk of further injury before they are evaluated by a physician.

Jolt Sensor was founded by Ben Harvatine and Seth Berg, who met at MIT, where they developed the sensor as a lab project with a team of other engineers and athletes. They also recently worked with MIT's Venture Monitoring Service, a service supporting innovation and entrepreneurial activity in the MIT community.

The Jolt Sensor is a MassChallenge 2014 Finalist. MassChallenge is the world's largest startup accelerator. The non-profit organisation selects 128 startups every year to take part in its accelerator program in Boston. The program lasts for four months and the top companies are awarded $1 million once they complete it.