nothing new under the sun

[waider]

Noting the awkwardness of fiddling with the speed control on a treadmill to adapt to my pace, I pondered how you could modify the treadmill itself to adapt its speed automatically. I came up with an idea not unlike this one - filed in 1992, patent granted in 1994 - although rather than ultrasonic rangefinding my idea was to use pressure on the treadmill loop itself to determine the runner's location. Oh well. I guess I'll have to come up with something else for my Get-Rich-Quick scheme.