Protective head gear with moveable members
View Patent ↗Disclosed are devices, systems, methods, products, and implementations, including a head gear device that includes a helmet adapted to be worn by a user, at least one sensor to measure one or more of, for example, force and/or motion, and one or more moveable members, the one or more moveable members configured to be displaced to apply a counterforce to a head of the user based, at least in part, on detection of one or more of, for example, a force component applied to the user and/or motion undergone by the user.
1. A method comprising:
detecting, by a device comprising at least one sensor secured to a helmet and a hardware-implemented controller, an external force component applied to a user; and causing, by the device, one or more moveable members, coupled to an inner surface of the helmet that includes an exterior surface and the inner surface defining a cavity adapted to be fitted on the head of the user, to be displaced, in response to the external force component applied to the helmet, detected by the at least one sensor secured to the helmet, towards the head of the user in a direction approximately opposite an impact direction at which the detected external force component was applied in order to apply a counterforce to the head of the user, wherein at least one of the one or more moveable members comprises a shaft coupled to a moveable pad and at least one motor to controllably actuate the shaft, and wherein causing the one or more moveable members to be displaced comprises controllably actuating, by the device, the shaft coupled to the moveable pad to cause the moveable pad to be displaced in the direction approximately opposite the impact direction at which the detected external force component was applied with a displacement force computed from a magnitude of the detected force component.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the external force component comprises:
detecting the external force component using the at least one sensor secured to the helmet, with the at least one sensor comprising using one or more of: an inertia sensor, a contact sensor, a pressure sensor, a force sensor, an accelerometer, and a proximity sensor.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the one or more moveable members to be displaced comprises:
causing at least one of the one or more moveable members to be displaced in response to a determination, by the device comprising the at least one sensor and the hardware-implemented controller, that the detected external force component applied to the user exceeds a pre-determined force threshold.