In a world awash with products to help the caregivers of people with dementia, Peter Zimmer set out to actually improve the quality of life for people with severe memory problems.

As a result, the serial entrepreneur has founded CogPro Cognitive Prosthetics, a Halifax company dedicated building intelligent products that intuitively improve the lives of dementia sufferers. The company’s first product is the Jeeves Thermostat, which helps the user set a comfortable temperature in his or her home and keep it at a comfortable level. CogPro now has a demonstration prototype of the product, and plans to bring it to market once it completes its current funding round.

“I got into this because I was taking care of my mother,” said Zimmer in an interview. “She was living in our downstairs flat and I observed her with the things she’s used all her life. . . . Could she keep on listening to the music she loved? Could she keep on phoning friends? Solving those problems for people with dementia takes a real load off the caregivers.”

One thing Zimmer noticed was that his mother was constantly fiddling with the thermostat. Feeling cold, she would set it higher. Minutes later she would feel cold again and, forgetting she had just adjusted it, she’d set it higher again. This would continue until the room would soon be too hot, and then she’d turn it way down. In the winter, that could lead to health dangers because the room would be too cold.

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Zimmer, the former general manager of CarShareHFX (now CarShare Altantic), said this fiddling with thermostats is common among dementia sufferers, so he set out to fix it. Designed by Matt d’Entrement, CogPro’s chief technical officer and director of the iDLab at Dalhousie University, the Jeeves Thermostat lets the occupant set the temperature at a comfortable level. It then ignores successive adjustments until the room temperature reaches the first setting. It can be set with a simple gesture, and can alert caregivers if there is a dramatic swing in temperature, which could mean a door has been left open.

“I observed that people with Alzheimer’s know what the thermostat is supposed to do, but the cognitive impairment makes it difficult to use it,” said Zimmer. He added the system “makes the quality of everyday life better for the actual person who’s using it. And I’d say that’s the big differentiator for us. Most of the focus (from CogPro’s competitors) seems to be, ‘We’ll guard you. We’ll make the caregiver’s life better by being a watchdog, ringing an alarm.’ But for Mom, does that make her life better?”

CogPro is now working on a $500,000 funding round, and has an investment commitment from one Atlantic Canadian investor. It hopes to have a commercial beta-test of the product in the next 6-9 months. The company has recently been accepted into Volta Labs and will be mentored by The Bureau, the mentorship group at the startup house.

The team hopes the Jeeves Thermostat will only be the first of its products for people with dementia — it is also planning radios, telephones and TV remote controls.

“We’re looking to make smartish appliances that will work in any old dumb house,” said Zimmer. “I want to allow a son who lives in San Diego to look after his mother who lives in a 150-year-old house in Cheticamp and doesn’t have Wi-Fi.”