Students plan to offer phone app that can detect concussions
WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana: Brightlamp LLC, a Purdue student-based startup, is working to become the first company to offer a downloadable app for public use that can detect concussions in real time.
Brightlamp is working on an app they’ve named Collide, which flashes a light from a smart device into a subject’s eye and then measures the pupil’s dilation and constriction, which helps detect concussion.
The app determines the eye’s pixels per-second rate through the use of the device’s camera in about five seconds. Collide could provide an answer to the possibility of a concussion in under 30 seconds.
The technology has been around for several years, available to NFL medical personnel and other professionals on a contractual basis, said Kurtis Sluss, company cofounder and chief executive officer. But they use different techniques to administer the technology, which has never been put onto a smart device.
“We want to open it to the public,” he said.
Collide currently has a beta application, said Jonathan Holt, company co-founder and chief legal officer. Company officials plan to conduct tests with some Lafayette area high school football teams in 2017. They’re hoping to release the app to the public soon.
In early testing of Collide data against MRIs, Collide has shown the potential to be more than 98 per cent accurate, Holt said.
“We’re making every effort to validate this technology,” he said. — Purdue News