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Company in CAN BE business incubator preparing to launch high-tech product

June 1, 2007
For more information contact Precision Design, 570-455-3533

Sarah and Jeff Hoffman are co-founders of Interactive Media Marketing Group (IMMG), a new business in the CAN BE business incubator.

HAZLETON – A new area business is developing a high-tech communications device for a market most people would never consider. And they’re doing it with the help of Greater Hazleton’s business incubator program - the Community Association for New Business Entrepreneurship, or CAN BE.

Interactive Media Marketing Group (IMMG) has developed a proprietary multipurpose device for residents of assisted living facilities. The device, known as the AIRR Communication System, will allow residents to communicate directly with facility staff any time of the day from anywhere in the facility without having to pick up a phone.

“The AIRR Communication System, or ACS, is a sort of personal communications device that allows residents the freedom go wherever they need to with the security of always being one touch away from the facility’s staff,” said Jeff Hoffman, who founded IMMG with his wife Sarah.

But the ACS is not just a type of intercom system. The device contains a sensor that, in the event a resident should fall, pinpoints their location, automatically alerts the staff member nearest to them and opens a line of communication between the staff and the resident to determine the nature of the fall, the extent of any injuries and initiate emergency medical treatment if necessary.

The ACS device, which can be worn around the neck as a pendant or at the waist like a cell phone, also performs a number of other valuable functions. It’s a portable phone that allows residents to talk to their families and friends any time without any charges or dropped calls. It’s a GPS locator, allowing family members and facility staff to determine the resident’s whereabouts to within three feet. And it’s waterproof and comes with a complete 7-year warranty.

The idea for the ACS came to Jeff and Sarah after a very personal experience. “We had an elderly family member living in a very highly rated assisted living facility. After a while, we found that she was not getting the personal care and attention we had expected,” Sarah said. “That’s when we started to think if there was some way we could help. We examined our concerns with her care and researched similar instances throughout the industry. That’s when we began to develop what would become the AIRR Communication System.”

Performing so many functions, the AIRR Communication System may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but the components that make up the device are already being used in other applications. “It’s not as far fetched as it may seem,” said Sarah. “Much of the secondary component technology the device incorporates, such as Bluetooth, already existed. It was just a matter of us putting the pieces together.”

The technology behind the ACS is something that Jeff started working on almost by accident. “I was at a meeting for a telecommunications company I worked for when this technology was brought up, albeit for a completely different purpose,” he said. “I started to think more about the technology and less about the way the company proposed to utilize it, and, without really even trying, I was laying the foundation for the ACS, which we have since patented.”

With the pieces in place, the Hoffman’s knew it was time to look for office space and put their full effort behind the company. They were already familiar with the benefits of starting a new business in an incubator program and looked for one that would meet their needs.

They found CAN BE.

CAN BE is a wholly owned subsidiary of CAN DO, Inc., created to help local entrepreneurs turn their ideas into successful businesses able to function on their own. In doing so, CAN BE helps establish new business and industry for Greater Hazleton.

CAN BE operates the Greater Hazleton Business Innovation Center, which is located in the Valmont Industrial Park in West Hazleton. The business incubator is located in a state-approved Keystone Innovation Zone, or KIZ, meaning that businesses locating in the CAN BE incubator will be eligible for preferential treatment for some state programs and may also be awarded resellable tax credits.

“We were familiar with business incubator programs and knew that it would be an ideal setting to launch IMMG full time,” Sarah said. “CAN BE’s incubator program offers everything a new start-up needs to build a successful business.”

As a member of CAN BE’s incubator program, IMMG can take advantage of a number of cost-saving benefits that typically hamper a start-up’s development, including affordable lease rates, shared business and office equipment, and managerial assistance.

Another benefit of the incubator program is access to dozens of area business professionals who freely offer their assistance as mentors in fields like accounting, marketing, banking and business law.

One such mentor is CAN BE Executive Director Jack St. Pierre. “I’ve been able to help Jeff and Sarah on a few occasions when they needed advice or an opinion on something,” he said. “I helped Jeff with the pendant design concept and component positioning, and put them in touch with local plastic molders that can fabricate the product.

“All of the mentors associated with CAN BE are happy to lend our experience and knowledge to the businesses in the incubator. Our goal is to help these companies get started and become successful, which leads to new businesses and new jobs for the area.”

IMMG has developed a basic prototype of the ACS, and Jeff and Sarah expect to have a fully functional version developed by this fall with production beginning in early 2008. “We’re currently finalizing our marketing and sales strategy and should be ready to roll out in the first quarter of next year,” Jeff said.

For more information on IMMG or the ACS device, call IMMG at 570-455-8334 or email Jeff Hoffman at immg@ptd.net. CAN BE is a fully functional incubator program operated out of the Greater Hazleton Business Innovation Center. CAN BE is funded in part by grants from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania and PPL Electric Utilities. Penn State Hazleton is an education partner of CAN BE.

If you have an idea for a new business or would like to know more about the incubator program, contact CAN BE at 455-8334 or visit them online at www.canbe.biz.