Could high school freshman Braeden Benedict's invention have a military application: traumatic brain injury.

Braeden Benedict is a high school freshman who has developed a system... a capsule of some sort, that is attached to a football helmet and when sufficient force impacts the helmet, the capsule breaks, indicating that the person wearing the helmet may have suffered a blow sufficient to cause a concussion.

There are, apparently, measuring devices out there which can do the same thing... but they are cumbersome, complicated and not really practical.  They also cost a great deal.

Braeden's capsule cost a couple of dollars... and when it breaks, a colored fluid leaks out, alerting fellow players and coaches that a head impact has been sustained, and, presumably, requiring an examination to be administered to determine if a concussion or other injury has been sustained.

We've been hearing more and more in the military realm, about undiagnosed traumatic brain injury, sustained as a result of hard blows, obviously, to the head.

What if Braeden's system could be adopted to military and/or police helmets and the like?

It seems to me that a system like the one he has developed would be cheap, easy to understand and apply, and could result in earlier diagnosis with subsequent more desirable outcomes.

DOD should take a look at this product.  In this day and age, it could save a number of lives and provide a faster, more efficient, cheaper and more efficacious means of screening for head injury/brain injury in ways that could really make a difference

High school science whiz kids from Southern California visit White House

Feb. 7, 2012 | By Kitty Felde | KPCC

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Braeden Benedict with his football helmet sensor

Football inspired an invention by 15-year-old freshman fullback Braeden Benedict from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. Two years ago, he says he had a teammate who suffered a concussion in a game. "And they didn’t know about it for one or two weeks afterwards. Just because he couldn’t focus at all in classes. And so after that, he missed weeks of school, he was really out of it, and it he can’t play football anymore just because it’s too dangerous."

So Benedict, the son of two engineers, invented a liquid sensor that turns a white patch on the front of the football helmet bright red when a player gets hit really hard. "What I was doing first of all is I was trying to develop a low-cost sensor that could be used for youth in high school sports that would tell you that you’ve received a hit that could have caused a concussion. So that way at least they’ll be able to check you out, the medical staff there, so at least they’ll have some knowledge of it. 'Cause lots of times, they can’t even see the hits."

Braeden Benedict’s helmet sensor invention won the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge. That came with a $25,000 prize — a down payment on a billion dollar idea from a high school science whiz.