Firm develops kit to test eye movements after injury, saying it can diagnose concussion in one minute. <br /> <br />Sports authorities, organisers and players throughout the world are paying more attention to the dangers of concussion injuries. <br /> <br />In the United States, the National Football League (NFL) has proposed an estimated $1 billion concussion settlement with thousands of retired players as more is discovered about the longterm dangers of head injuries in contacts sports. <br /> <br />World soccer governing body FIFA brought in worldwide measures to stop players who might be concussed continuing in a game. There is now provision for referees to stop games while players are evaluated by team doctors. <br /> <br />But testing for concussion is difficult, imperfect and time-consuming. <br /> <br />Now a technology company SyncThink is proposing a camera-based system for diagnosing concussion in a minute by tracking eye movements. <br /> <br />Concussions are a mild form of traumatic brain injury and according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control there are nearly 4 million instances per year in athletes of all ages. <br /> <br />Symptoms can vary from headaches and confusion to slurred speech and vomiting. In some cases, symptoms could take days to appear making concussions all the more dangerous. <br /> <br />Concussions affect the brain's anticipatory neural network which guides how we react to the world us. The largest input into that network is visual. It's this fact that Boston-based technology company SyncThink put at the core of a technology that can reliably diagnose a concussion very quickly. <br /> <br />"Our assessment data is collected at a very high rate which allows us to produce a full assessment within one minute," said Dan Beeler, the Chief Technology Officer of SyncThink. <br /> <br />A user puts on a virtual reality headset that is connected to a computer tablet. A moving circle appears in the display. As the eyes follow the circle, infrared cameras follow the eyes. The data collected from the eye tracking technology is processed and compared against a baseline of normal eye movement. <br /> <br />According to Dan Beeler, the test could potentially decrease the chances of people with concussions incurring further injuries, both on the playing field and the battle field. <br /> <br />The company has been working with college sport teams and the U.S. military to perfect the device. <br /> <br />"There is much more awareness of the risks out there and a growing acceptance of those risks and ways to mitigate them and our technology can play a part in that," said Beeler. <br /> <br />The goal now, according to Beeler, is giving the thousands that suffer a concussion every year a new tool to stay safe.
