2023-10-16 05:30:00
Rugby can hurt. Very bad. And the captain of the XV of France Antoine Dupont, forced to rest in the middle of the World Cup because of a broken jaw, knows something about it. So, to further ensure the safety of players, World Rugby, the international body which manages this sport, did not break its head and decided on Monday October 9 to make the use of connected mouthguards compulsory from now on for women and from January for men. He indicated that he was investing 2 million euros to support federations, competitions and clubs so that they adopt the technology of the American company founded in 2015 Prevent Biometrics.
A technological gem to chew on
What exactly does it consist of? This is a device equipped with sensors which signals and measures head impacts suffered by rugby players in real time. The algorithm of this chewable piece of technology calculates the force, location and direction of each impact received during a match. In this way, this intelligent mouth guard reinforces World Rugby’s head injury assessment protocol, which has a success rate of only 90% in diagnosing concussions. “For the first time, players who have suffered a high acceleration game, but who have not presented symptoms or who have not been spotted by television cameras, will be able to be taken off the field and evaluated,” rejoices. World Rugby in a press release.
The device is the result of ten years of research carried out by doctors, engineers and mathematicians trained by NASA. Prevent Biometrics, leader in its market, has raised 5 million dollars (around 4.7 million euros) in 2022 to develop a new version of its mouth protection that is more capable of detecting whether it is correctly positioned in the athlete’s mouth .
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