High-Tech Football Helmets Sense Impact

Jan. 21, 2006 — -- John Bunting suffered three concussions during his 10 years as an NFL linebacker.

"I could barely get up," said Bunting of one of his injuries. "My head was just kind of spiraling, going back down to earth."

Now, as a coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, Bunting is heading one of three collegiate teams participating in a Centers for Disease Control study to better understand head injuries.

"What is unique about it [the helmet] is that we have placed these six single access accelerometers that are about the size of a nickel," said Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz, director of the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This past season, 50 players wore $1,500 helmets during every game and practice. A stream of data was beamed wirelessly to computers in a process similar to mission control monitoring the stress on astronauts during a launch.

"They know your body better than you know your own body, so it is up to them whether you go out there," said Tommy Davis, a Tar Heel defensive end.

The computers matched up the hits to actual video from the games, and during a practice the sensors instantly indicated when a player sustained a dangerous impact.

Based on this system, one player who had taken a hit registering 102 Gs was recently told to rest for two weeks.

The helmets have measured more than 33,000 hits on the North Carolina team, and more than 250 of those hits had a force greater than 100 Gs. That is equivalent to slamming into a brick wall at 25 mph.

"We got to continue to teach them to not use their head as a battering ram," Bunting said.

An unexpected benefit of the system is that it can identify a player who repeatedly tackles with his head first.

"So we were able to sit that player down and show him the video," Guskiewicz said. And we said, "take your head out of the game because it can result in a catastrophic spine injury."

The world's leading manufacturer of helmets is now working to mass produce the high-tech models in the hopes of making them affordable to every player from high school to the pros.

ABC News' Mike von Fremd reported this story for "World News Tonight."