Syncing Mouthguard Data: A New Way to Study Head Injuries in Rugby

Head injuries in contact sports, like rugby, are becoming a real concern. To tackle this, two big rugby organizations have made it mandatory for players to wear special mouthguards that record data. These mouthguards, known as instrumented mouthguards (iMGs), track head acceleration events (HAEs). But with all this data coming in, it's a challenge to analyze it quickly and effectively. Imagine trying to match up the data from these mouthguards with video footage of the game. That's where cross-correlation synchronization comes in. This method helps line up the mouthguard data with the video recording, giving analysts the exact timestamps for each head event. This way, they can easily spot these events in the video. After syncing the data, the next step is to figure out what caused each HAE. This is done through post-synchronization event matching. It identifies the specific action in the game, like a tackle or a ball carry, that led to the HAE. This is crucial for calculating the likelihood of certain game actions causing head injuries. In a professional setting like rugby, using commercially available datasets of game events could speed up this whole process. It's about making the most of the data to keep players safer.