Lightweight Wearable Headband With Flexible Hybrid Electronics for Head-Kinematic Monitoring and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Risk Detection

Abstract

Mild traumatic brain injuries are a significant health risk in sports and military environments, often caused by high-impact forces. This letter presents a flexible hybrid headband system for real-time monitoring of head kinematics during impacts of varying magnitude and direction. It integrates eight triaxial accelerometers in a near-regular tetrahedral configuration and employs an acceleration-only algorithm to measure linear accelerations without gyroscopes. Firmware uses a parallel queue system for efficient real-time data collection at 1600-Hz bandwidth. Testing on a Hybrid III head form via the dummy for rotational evaluation of wearable system evaluated five impact magnitudes and directions (front, rear, and left). CORrelation and Analysis (CORA) validated system accuracy, with average CORA scores of 0.840 (rear), 0.883 (front), and 0.832 (left). Some individual impacts achieved scores up to 0.98. Repeatability tests showed minimal variation, confirming consistent performance. These results demonstrate the system's potential for real-time, reliable head-kinematic monitoring in military helmets and high-impact sports.