Patent ID: 7410449

Claim:
An exercise apparatus comprising: front and rear rolls; a moving tread belt wrapped around the rolls, a user being capable of walking, running, or sitting on the tread belt; a motor having a driving shaft, a belt wrapped around the front roll and an open end of the driving shaft, and a reduction gear at one side of the front roll such that the driving shaft is adapted to rotate the front roll when the motor activates; a frame with the rolls, the tread belt, and the motor mounted and including two front uprights; a control panel mounted on a top of the uprights; a sensor electrically connected to the driving shaft for sensing a rotation of the driving shaft and generating a sense signal if the sensor senses the rotation of the driving shaft; and a controller electrically interconnected the sensor and the control panel, the controller adapted to receive the sense signal and generate a control signal which is in turn sent back to the motor; wherein the control signal commands the motor to activate to generate a reverse force to either (i) stop the rotation of the driving shaft in substantially real time for maintaining the tread mill motionless in response to the user's foot impact on the tread mill less than or equal to a predetermined reverse force or (ii) oppose a movement of the tread belt in substantially real time in response to the user's foot impact on the tread mill larger than the predetermined reverse force; and wherein either after moving the tread belt, the tread belt maintains at its current position in response to stopping exercise or the user's foot impact on the tread mill is less than or equal to the predetermined reverse force; or the movement of the tread belt involves firstly moving the tread belt rearward, and secondly moving the tread belt forward to its original position in response to stopping exercise or the user's foot impact on the tread mill being less than or equal to the predetermined reverse force.