FACIAL LACERATION MEASUREMENT MASK FOR ANTHROPOMORPHIC MODELS

]THE PURPOSE OF THIS PHASE I EFFORT WILL BE TO DEVELOP AND TEST IN PROTOTYPE AN INNOVATIVE FACE MASK TO FIT THE HYBRID III MANIKIN HEADS. THE MASK WILL BE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY TO BE SUITABLE FOR MEASURING FACIAL LACERATION POTENTIAL DURING VARIOUS TRAUMA RESEARCH EFFORTS. THIS MASK WILL BE CONSTRUCTED OF COMPOSITES THAT MIMIC MANY CHARACTERISTICS OFLIVING HUMAN SKIN AND WILL CAUSE MINIMAL DYNAMIC IMPACT RESPONSE CHANGES. THE NATURE OF THE ARTIFICIAL SKIN WILL BESUCH THAT IT CAN BE MANUFACTURED IN A CONSISTANT MANNER, IMPROVING THE REPEATABILITY OF RESEARCH RESULTS. THE FACIALMASK WILL GIVE ROUGHLY THE SAME TRIPLEX LACERATION INDEX SCORES AS THE CURRENTLY USED DOUBLE LAYER OF CHAMOIS, SINCE YEARS OF DATA HAVE BEEN COLLECTED USING THIS METHOD. AUTOMOBILE PRODUCERS, DOT, AND NUMEROUS GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND INSTITUTIONS CONDUCT RESEARCH WITH HYBRID III ANTHROPOMETRIC MODELS. AS INJURY DATA GROWS, IT BECOMES INCREASINGLY CRITICAL TO DEVELOP ACCURATE, REPRODUCIBLE WAYSTO MEASURE LACERATION POTENTIAL. A LOW-PRICED, EASILY SECURED FACIAL MASK OF CONSISTENT QUALITY WILL BE A NECESSITY IN TRAUMA INJURY RESEARCH IN THE FUTURE.