How an Omaha company, UNO researchers are helping the treadmill race into the future

'We're helping the treadmill be smarter, to be responsive to the person'

It might be fair to say there's nothing particularly exciting about a treadmill. You can run for miles on the piece of exercise equipment without really going anywhere.

But some researchers at UNO think they have technology that will help treadmills sprint into the future — with a self-pacing feature.

Inside a room at UNO's biometrics lab, you'll find a fairly ordinary looking piece of exercise equipment. But this treadmill is high-tech.

"We're helping the treadmill be smarter, to be responsive to the person," said Doug Miller, CEO of Impower Health.

Impower is working to commercialize a new university invention: the self-pacing treadmill. Miller has worked for fitness companies who tried this before — but couldn't quite cross the finish line.

"The magic here is they have core expertise in ... how the body works," Miller said.

The treadmill watches how the user moves with these tiny sensors placed on the top and bottom of the machine. UNO researchers shrunk sensors that would normally require a whole room to work and to fit right on the front of the treadmill.

"So we're essentially monitoring three points on the user's body, the center of mass on the treadmill, and their two feet," Miller said.

The team at UNO said the tech is safe and effective — and can help people speed up of slow down based on what their body is telling them.

"So you don't have to feel like you're not a good runner, you can work at your pace," Miller said.

The invention caught the attention of Omaha's newest venture capital fund.

"We are working with that CEO to figure out how to unlock markets to put Nebraska on the map as the pioneer of the self-pacing treadmill," said Nathan Preheim, one of the partners at Proven Ventures.

Proven Ventures provides not just dollars, but marketing support and connections that can help startups take off.

"We're going to partner these brilliant inventors with folks that are ready to commercialize and it's the union of those two things that I think are going to put us on the map," Preheim said.

Preheim says building companies around the state's university technology is one more way Nebraska can catch up in the race for talent.