Virginia Tech Helmet Lab - HITIQ instrumented mouthguard validation

Virginia Tech (VT) Helmet Lab is one of the leading helmet and impact instrumentation research organisations in the world. It is regarded by some as the gold standard in impact instrumentation validation. VT Helmet Lab has been testing the validity of the HITIQ Vector A9 against the reference National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) headform centre of gravity. This included impacts from rigid flat and flat padded impactors as well as a rigid curved and curved padded impactor with a variety of accelerations and spins. These tests are designed to replicate the types of impact that an individual might experience in sports like AFL, Rugby and combat sports.

The agreement between HITIQ’s mouthguard and the reference technology was very high. Across all types of impact, agreement was over 94 %. This gives confidence that sensors within the mouthguard provide valid data when compared to reference sensors further validating the HITIQ technology for use in applied sporting environments to allow optimal athlete safety and impact management. You can read the full paper here.

You can download the full report below:

Virginia Tech Helmet Lab, 2021, Sensor STAR: HITIQ instrumented mouthguard