Pro-Neck-Tor

Head-first impacts are dangerous because the neck is required to suddenly stop the motion of the torso immediately after the head stops. The combination of the torso mass and speed can exceed the strength of the neck in this scenario.

Existing helmet designs are effective when protecting against skull and brain injury using hard outer shells and internal padding, but they do not provide any additional protection against injury to the neck.

Pro-Neck-Tor makes use of a double-shell design with engineered mechanical guides connecting the two shells. During a head-first impact, Pro-Neck-Tor guides the head along the surface, reducing the neck's need to stop the following torso, minimizing the loads on the neck during impact. Proof-of-concept tests using an instrumented mechanical head and neck model have demonstrated that Pro-Neck-Tor can reduce neck loads in head-first impact.

Source: pronecktor.comAdded: 11 May 2010