Grow Utah Ventures, Zions Bank, USTAR, Workman Nydegger, Ballard Spahr and CFO Solutions have named USU technology Camp Guard as a finalist in the 2009 Concept to Company contest for outdoor recreation.

The Camp Guard, a USU patent pending technology, is a wireless perimeter security system that alerts campers of intruders and animals entering their campsite.

“The real value of the product is in child security,” said Glenn Whichard, technology commercialization associate at USU’s Technology Commercialization Office (TCO). “You can easily create a perimeter at the playground, the lake or your campsite and the Camp Guard will alert you when your children wander outside the designated area.”

Whichard worked closely with Jim Reese, Camp Guard team leader, and Rick Hughes, chief engineer, to patent the technology. Both Reese and Hughes are retired from USU. David White, president and CEO of Cajun Archery in Logan, is also a member of the Camp Guard commercialization team.

The Camp Guard weighs fewer than two pounds, requires no additional setup other than simply turning the machine on and, as it utilizes “passive infrared” sensor transmitters, the device is completely wireless.

According to the U.S. Travel Association, camping is the number one outdoor vacation activity in America. One third of U.S. adults say they have gone camping in the past five years.

USU’s TCO believes Camp Guard has strong commercialization potential.

“We hope to see the product on the market soon,” Whichard said. “Right now we are working on putting the right people together to facilitate the development of this concept; there is room to grow here and we are interested in developing new partnerships.”

“We continue to be impressed by the quality and depth of ideas presented by these finalists,” said T. Craig Bott, president and CEO of Grow Utah Ventures. “Each finalist has brought a great concept to the table and we are confident, that like last year, every one of them is capable of a viable business.”

Other finalists included concepts for solar-powered water sterilization, innovations in skiing technology and outdoor communication devices.

This was the second outdoor recreation Concept to Company contest and the fifth contest of its kind in Utah since the first contest kicked off in July 2008. The competitions are ongoing innovation contests held in various regions across the state of Utah. They were created as a way to encourage entrepreneurism and stimulate business growth in the state. Each competition focuses on a different industry and matches the unique entrepreneurial strength of that particular region.

USU’s Technology Commercialization Office assists faculty and staff in understanding the technology transfer process and extracting the fair market value of university intellectual property for the benefit of the university, faculty, staff and community.

Visit the TCO Web site, http://tco.usu.edu, for more information and news, or follow it on Twitter at twitter.com/USU_TechCom.