The mouthguards, valued at $300 each, are a key part of a new study concerning concussion funded by World Rugby, with assistance from New Zealand Rugby, the University of Otago and Prevent Biometrics.
The state-of-the-art mouthguards contain a data acquisition system that, in real-time, collects and wirelessly transmits count, load, location, direction, linear and rotational motion every time there is a collision.
The mouthguards are being handed out to about 700 rugby players, 28 teams, in Dunedin and all training and matches will be recorded in a four-week block.
New Zealand Rugby research scientist Danielle Salmon said the mouthguards were state-of-the-art.
"They have got more technology than my computer has," she said
The mouthguards had a trigger threshold when impact occurred.
"We have set the threshold at 5 g-force, so any time someone does something, that triggers the sensors in the mouthguard ... that will capture that data. From that we will match that event with the video and capture what they are doing to the best we can," she said.
The mouthguards were developed by US company Prevent Biometrics.
The teams, which cover premier level down to the under-13 grade in both male and female grades, will have their training and games recorded over the four-week period. The mouthguards will be able to signal where and by what force the head was impacted and that will be matched up by the video of the training.
Ms Salmon said much research had gone into concussion at the professional level of the sport but not a lot at the lower levels.
"At the community level we don’t know what happens to the head and what forces the head experiences in games and training. This is one of the largest and first studies in the world to dive into this. This will help us understand what is happening and use that to develop prevention programmes."
Ms Salmon said concussion had been recognised much more in the past few years and it was now about coming up with prevention programmes similar to what had been done on scrummaging about 20 years ago. It was hoped to have all the data and research completed by the end of the year.
