Improved protection and performance through advanced helmet design

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The helmet is an essential piece of equipment to protect the head from impact. In a military context, impacts may include blast, ballistic, or blunt force to the head. Perhaps not surprisingly, helmet research and design has focused on continuously improving the impact protection of the helmet. Improvements in impact protection ensure that our military personnel can return home safely. However, recently the helmet has also become a useful platform for mounting communications and performance enhancement devices. At the same time, chronic neck pain has emerged as a significant problem for our military personnel, particularly helicopter aircrew, directly affecting their operational readiness and quality of life post-military duty. While no single cause is solely responsible, the increased use of the helmet as a mounting platform for other devices is a leading concern. The focus of this research is to learn more about how added mass on the head (i.e., the addition of communications devices, or night vision goggles to the helmet) influences head-neck function and tissue level exposures. We will apply these learnings, in concert with impact simulations, to re-think helmet design. Through this approach we will realize helmet design options that continue to provide essential impact protection to prevent acute impact related injuries, but that also considers the helmet's role as a mounting platform. Importantly, our new helmet design will also improve protection against long-term chronic neck pain, a growing problem that will continue to reduce the quality of life of our veterans if left un-checked.