[Dion]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...rss-topstories

Coming soon to a worried parent near you: a sales pitch for a $1,000 football helmet that can monitor the precise location and severity of impacts to little Johnny's head. Leading helmetmaker Riddell plans to begin flooding high schools with take-home brochures this month and to start shipping this concussion-sensing gear to families in November. Says Riddell marketing chief Jim Heidenreich: "If people buy $1,000 drivers and $500 baseball bats, we hope they'll spend that kind of money on head protection."

Eight colleges, including three Big Ten schools, are using the team version of Riddell's high-tech helmets, which wirelessly relay real-time data--gleaned from the same sensors found in car air bags--to a sideline computer that can send a pager alert if a player receives a hit or a series of hits that exceed a certain magnitude.