Concussion Simulator: A wearable,  interactive, and immersive headgear which allows users to understand what a concussion might feel like. The wearer experiences multiple common symptoms of a concussion, like nausea, sensitivity to light, and headaches, creating an accurate feeling of being concussed.

This Concussion Simulator embodies multiple symptoms that one may experience when  concussed.  As an invisible injury,  concussions  can be difficult to self diagnose. The symptoms are often feelings that can come with everyday headaches,  making differentiation tricky.  Here, we created a device that compiles many of the symptoms, to create a way for people to empathize with this relatively obscure injury. 

We created our "helmet" by first recording some of the most common concussion symptoms. We then designed and created a helmet which simulates what it feels like to experience these symptoms.  This "helmet" went through many changes and iterations. The first of which was a box that the user would wear as a helmet. After realizing this only fit some people, we made a felt head "strap" helmet that was adjustable via Velcro. Lastly, after acknowledging that the Velcro couldn't provide the snug fit that we needed the helmet to have, we created the third and final iteration of our helmet, made from adjustable webbing. The first symptom we took on was a simple headache, which the helmet simulates by applying a squeezing pressure to the wearers head. We also added special pads on the temples, to add extra pressure there to make the "concussion headache" more realistic. We built goggles with lights around the eye holes, to help simulate the sensitivity to light that one might feel with a concussion.  People with concussions also often feel nauseous, so we incorporated an app called Speech Jammer, which induces nausea by playing everything the user hears a split second later. Lastly, we added a free spinning weight atop a pillar attached to the top of the headgear. This weight spins to the direction that the wearer is leaning, helping to simulate the loss of balance that one might have when concussed. All of these symptoms combined into one wearable headgear provides for an accurate concussion-like experience for the wearer, allowing them to empathize with people who have had concussions.