Device helps athletes monitor practice

Adam Tilton, right, uses a sports and activity tracking device on his wrist as he perform curls while his computer software system tracks the device at the Rithmio office at EnterpriseWorks in Champaign on Tuesday, April 8, 2014. Prashant Mehta, left, who helped with the creation of the wearable device, looks on.

Using it, weight lifters can check on how many curls or hammer curls they've done during workouts. Sprinters can find out how many strides they took, and swimmers can keep track of how many strokes they used while doing laps.

The 26-year-old doctoral student at the University of Illinois hopes to test a preliminary version of the product, called Rithmio, on campus in the next few weeks.

"Our goal is to have a mobile app ready to go by the end of June," said Tilton, who is building on research done in the lab of his adviser, Prashant Mehta, an associate professor of mechanical science and engineering.

Read more about this research being done by CSL graduate student Adam Tilton and CSL professor Prashant Mehta in The News-Gazette.