Interactive inflatable bladder mounted on outside of helmets and other protective equipment

Abstract

The invention claimed is an interactive inflatable bladder mounted on the outside of any helmet and may be utilized in other forms of protective equipment worn for the purpose of protecting persons from impacts that may cause bodily injury. Helmets are used in numerous sports, activities, and occupations to protect the user from bodily injury resulting from impacts to the head. Existing helmet designs used today are based only on upon post-impact protections. The invention claimed herein improves on pre-impact designs by integrating existing state-of-the-art technologies used in other industries to the helmet to provide pre-impact protections to said post-impact helmet designs. Said system is not limited to helmets and could also be utilized in other forms of protective equipment.

1 . An interactive inflatable bladder system for sports, riding, occupational and military helmets, chin straps, face guards and other associated protective equipment, comprising:
 A. An interactive inflatable bladder (Drawing #A) mounted on the outside of said helmet (Drawing #B) or equipment
 Said bladder is customized to fit the outside shell of any said helmet or equipment; 
 Said bladder can be designed as both a component built into the original construction or to be applied after the original construction of any said helmet or equipment; 
 Said bladder will lie flat and inconspicuous, fitted exactly to proper shape and size and integrated with any appropriate logos on the outside surface of any said helmet or equipment; and, 
   B. Multiple sensors & deployment mechanisms (Drawing #C), comprised of a LIDAR, shock detectors/impact sensors and/or other existing (and future) state-of-the-art automobile crash avoidance and impact protection technologies
 Said sensors in tandem would form a “pre-impact” system which will track objects and their speeds to determine if the velocity of the object crosses a threshold; 
 An algorithm will detect the speed of the object by comparing the change in the movement of the object from a previous frame to the current frame; 
 If the velocity of the object crosses a criterion for deployment, it triggers the firing circuit to deploy the inflatable bladder which will meet the incoming force before it reaches the helmet surface or other protective gear surfaces.