The NFL awarded three grants to technology startups aiming to improve athlete safety and performance through its third annual 1st and Future competition over Super Bowl weekend.
The league contest — co-sponsored by Comcast NBCUniversal and Mayo Clinic — gave $50,000 each to Impressio, Inc., which developed an innovate material for improved energy and impact absorption, in the category of Advancements in Protective Equipment; RecoverX, which administers cold and hot therapies without ice or water, for New Therapies to Speed Recovery; and Curv.ai, which wields computer vision algorithms to turn a mobile device’s camera into an advanced athlete tracking system, for Technology to Improve Athletic Performance.
Denver-based Impressio use a smart, shape-changing polymer called liquid-crystalline elastomers (LCEs) that can be used as a dissipative liner for protective equipment such as helmets. Co-founder Chris Yakacki previously received a National Science Foundation Career Award for his work with LCEs.
“We’re not trying to redesign what’s outside the helmet,” Yakacki told CNET. “Just the materials inside of it.”
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RecoverX, which has its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., is a hardware technology company developing a connected device that will make athlete recovery more portable and convenient by offering hot and cold therapies without the traditional supplies.
Curv.ai uses computer vision and augmented reality to capture human motion such as body angles during exercises, quantify athletic activities like a 40-yard dash time and evaluate injury risk.
The other finalists were Exero Labs, VyaTek Sports, Cartilage Repair Systems LLC, EyeGuide, Inc., Aladdin Dreamer, Inc. and Xensr, Inc. The winners of last year’s competition were GoRout, Mobile Virtual Player and Windpact.