Owen Sutton, a BA Product Design student at Nottingham Trent University, has designed a safety hat that would protect user from head injuries especially when they experience a seizure. The design was inspired by his own experience, as a student with epilepsy after receiving treatment for a brain tumor, Sutton feels the need to protect his head when experiencing a seizure. Existing products on the market are not discrete and not wearable. Using smart materials that sit underneath an ordinary baseball cap, this hat can protect people with epilepsy from further injury when they fall and accidentally bang their head on any surface.

Owen Sutton made a prototype from Poron XRD, a special material that is able to absorb more than 90% of energy when impacted at high strain rates. From his research, he found that many existing seizure hats were clunky and people preferred not to wear them for this reason. This hat designed by Owen wants to provide wearer with a good degree of protection without looking like a safety device in any way whatsoever.

“Most seizure hats look painfully obvious to the outside world that they’re for medical reasons. When you consider that wearing one is completely optional, there’s no way we will ever see a huge take-up of them if people feel self-conscious. I would personally hate to wear one in a restaurant, for instance, and have everyone staring at me.” – Owen Sutton

The prototype of this wearable seizure hat is displayed as part of an online public exhibition at NTU Design Industries official website.

Tuvie has received “Wearable Safety Hat” project from our ‘Submit A Design‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their design/concept for publication.