Innovate Utah NEW IDEAS, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FROM UTAH COMPANIES

Salt Lake City-based Hero Defense Systems LLC, a designer and manufacturer of personal defense products, has released a new close-proximity defense device named AIIRO. The device is designed for consumers and professionals as a close-contact personal defense system.

AIIRO’s design was awarded the Personal Protection Product of the Year award by American Outdoors at the Shot Show 2022 in Las Vegas.{mprestriction ids="1,3"}

About the size of a smartphone, AIIRO can be concealed in a pocket, purse or bag for self-defense use in a variety of situations. AIIRO uses nitrogen power to fire blasts of sticky and debilitating pelargonic acid vanillylamide, a synthetic capsaicinoid, in a gel compound at over 100 miles per hour. The effects are immediate with painful burning sensations on the skin, difficulty seeing and intense coughing and discomfort. Effects last up to an hour, giving the user the time to get to safety and find help.

“AIIRO offers an affordable solution for consumers and professional agencies alike looking for ways to feel safer while driving, at work, at school and everywhere in-between,” Hero Defense Systems said. “A safe and legal alternative to firearms, AIIRO has no long-term effects, with a simple design anyone can use.”

“We’re so proud to be delivering AIIRO to our customers,” said David Clemons, co-founder and CEO of Hero Defense Systems. “Our engineering and patent processes took much longer than we wanted, but it’s been worth the wait. This is definitely a new category of self-defense product, and AIIRO is already an award- winner.”

Backcountry, an outdoor retailer based in Park City, has launched Outervention, a campaign encouraging its customers to unplug from the daily grind, connect with nature and try new activities outdoors. The campaign kicked off with the launch of the short film “Outervention Costa Rica.” The film introduces the campaign through the story of a Backcountry customer disconnecting from her daily life, finding a new passion and rediscovering what she lives for. “With the increasing norm of fast-paced work environments, countless stressors and a recurring list of responsibilities, the burnout rate is spiking across the country,” said Backcountry CEO Melanie Cox. “Not only does the campaign serve as a reminder to live in the moment, but it will also include opportunities for us to send some of our customers on incredible trips.”

Guard Dog Solutions Inc., which does business in Salt Lake City as guardDog.ai and is a provider of cybersecurity protection, has introduced Fido v3. The new version includes technology for containerized management that helps overcome supply chain issues and provides product options in cloud environments. The new version also expands guardDog.ai’s Attack Service Management and real-time threat elimination services to any size of deployment. “We are extremely pleased to bring forward our first containerized management and fully virtual Fido alternatives for getting installations connected to guardDog.ai’s advanced threat elimination technology,” said Peter Bookman, guardDog.ai CEO. “We are passionate about helping businesses of every size achieve full and proactive capability.” An IT provider can now deploy and manage Fido protection for thousands of networks and users from a single location.

Salt Lake City healthcare technology developer and manufacturer Novarad has received FDA 510(k) approval for its VisAR augmented reality surgical navigation system. That means the system is enough like a previously approved device to be marketed without further FDA scrutiny. VisAR is a precision-guided intraoperative spine surgery device that transforms a patient’s imaging data into a 3D hologram which is visible through an optical visor and superimposed onto the patient with submillimeter accuracy. This allows the surgeon to focus directly on the surgical objective without looking away at a separate monitor. “This is transformational technology that provides the precision of a robot, the portability of a stethoscope and the versatility of human-powered intelligence,” said Dr.ÊWendell Gibby, Novarad CEO and co-creator of VisAR. Gibby compared VisAR to a surgical GPS.

SixFifty Technologies, a Midvale-based provider customized legal contracts, policies and documents, has announced its 50 State Hiring Kit, which it said makes the process of hiring in an increasingly remote working world more efficient and cost-effective. Built for human resources and legal teams, employers may select the states in which they wish to hire and the software automatically generates a comprehensive document explaining the relevant laws and action items to conduct business and maintain an employee in that state. “SixFifty’s hiring kit is the ultimate blueprint for a company’s nationwide hiring needs — made all the more important as companies like Airbnb and Lyft move to remote working conditions,” said Kimball Parker, CEO of SixFifty. “SixFifty’s kit removes the guesswork and roadblocks because we do the legal legwork for you.”

Springville-based Tyfoom, an engagement platform for employee communication and training, has announced the availability of Tyfoom 2.0. The updated app improves the administrator experience, user experience, accessibility and performance, the company said. The app provides a simple and easy way for organizations to communicate any process, best practice or other information within the flow of work to ensure it is viewed, understood and utilized by employees to improve culture, productivity and employee engagement. “Employees want to be empowered and to have a connection with their employers, but most feel unengaged,” said Mark Nelson, CEO of Tyfoom. “Tyfoom has a 71 percent daily engagement rate, which is higher than the leading social media platforms. As a result, organizations can be confident their workforce will adopt Tyfoom, thereby fostering an engaged culture.”

APEX Biologix, a Murray-based regenerative medicine company, has expanded its XCELL Bone Marrow Concentration (BMC) products to include a second bone marrow system specifically designed for use in ambulatory surgery centers and hospital operating rooms. This advanced bone marrow concentration kit enhances the APEX Biologix XCELL products that target the orthobiologic space, the company said. “XCELL BMC has helped provide physicians with the ability to maximize healing for countless numbers of patients,” said Dan Crane, CEO of APEX Biologix. “This trailblazing version of our XCELL BMC provides opportunity for even more efficient cell concentrations.” The extended XCELL BMC kits provide an easy-to-use and adaptable system that provides surgeons with a best-in-class concentration level. The system shortens total processing time and has a customized bench-top processing device that reduces human error.

WholesomeCo, a medical cannabis provider in West Bountiful, has launched a custom eCommerce app forÊiOS to make shopping and ordering easier for its patients. “With 80 percent of our online traffic coming from a mobile device, we felt the next logical step was to further optimize our patient shopping experience with a dedicated iOS app,” said Alan Clark, the firm’s vice president of product “We built the WholesomeCo app in-house, which gives us full ability to add new features and continually improve the mobile shopping experience.” The app includes push notifications, keeping patients informed of their order status. Patients will also have online shopping at their fingertips, with the ability to shop products by strain, category or effect, allowing them to quickly find the best products for their needs, Clark said.{/mprestriction}