Virginia Tech Helmet Lab Validation of HitIQ Nexus A9 - Stage 1

Virginia Tech Helmet Lab

HitIQ is excited to be working with Virginia Tech Helmet Lab to provide additional validation to the already well-validated HitIQ Nexus A9 mouthguard. In this recent study, our instrumented mouthguards were compared to reference measurements obtained from the NOCSAE headform center of gravity (CG).

This included looking at a bare headform struck by a flat padded impactor, a bare headform struck by a flat rigid impactor, and a helmeted headform struck by a curved rigid impactor. Helmeted tests were conducted using a standard Riddell Speed American football helmet.

For each impact configuration, three trials were completed at four target linear accelerations and four impact locations, giving a total of 144 tests in total.

HITIQ Validation Scores 

In the first stage of the testing HitIQ scored a correlation score of between 93.5 and 99.9 when judged against the reference score (a score of 80 is defined as the pass/fail threshold for the in-laboratory testing phase of Sensor STAR).

This is no surprise to us as we think the Nexus A9 is the best way to measure head impacts available today though it is hugely encouraging to see that this validity is in place across a number of impact zones, impact types, using a variety of instruments and with and without a helmet.

Our instrumented mouthguards have passed the in-laboratory testing phase of Sensor STAR (September 2021) and qualify for the on-field testing phase. Virginia Tech Sensor STAR protocol is one of the leading ways of testing head impact measurement giving further quality assurance over the validity of our technology 

We are excited to see the results from the next round of testing, which we expect to provide further positive validation.

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