Patent ID: 7837640

Claim:
A joint and body protection device for a protected body joint disposed between a first and second body part, comprising: an engineered textile, having a first end and a second end; the engineered textile including an plurality of overlapping fibers; the overlapping fibers being freely slidable relative to and in communication with each other to provide varying degrees of friction against each other and varying degrees of compaction of the fibers in response to an applied load; stiffness of the engineered textile thereby non-linearly increasing in response to the applied load; the first end being securable to the first body part and the second end being securable to the second body part with the engineered textile spanning across a protected body joint; the first end being securable to the first body part by a first means for anchoring and the second end being securable to the second body part by a second means for anchoring; a strain rate dependent damping material; the engineered textile being in communication with the strain rate dependant damping material so that stiffness in the engineered textile is a non-linear function of displacement, velocity, or acceleration; the engineered textile being configured to provide dynamic kinematic control of the protected body joint; wherein force between the first means for anchoring and the second means for anchoring is dynamically and progressively changed in response to motion of the protected joint so that the device can be loosened and progressively tightened as needed for protection of the protected joint.