Student with epilepsy designs wearable seizure hat to help others stay safe
Published: 14/07/2021
A BA Product Design student who developed epilepsy after receiving treatment for a brain tumour has designed a wearable safety hat to protect others from head injuries when they experience a seizure.
Owen Sutton designed an insert from Poron XRD to sit under an ordinary baseball cap to help protect other people with epilepsy if they fall and bang their head. Poron XD is a smart material which absorbs and dissipates impact energy without transferring it to the wearer.
After receiving a brain operation to remove a tumour, Owen has suffered several seizures, one of which caused him to fall and hit his head. This led him to search for a seizure hat but found that all the ones in existence were ‘clunky’ and not very discrete. Therefore, the aim of Owen’s project was to design a hat that provided the wearer with a good degree of protection without looking like a safety device.
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
Owen’s work will appear in the NTU Summer Show, which will see graduating artists and designers displaying their work as part of an online public exhibition.
View the NTU Summer Show