Bob Millar, left, Peter Kirkpatrick, and Donal Byrne of Paige frame with their one-touch video calling device, at the Waterloo Accelerator Centre. Mathew McCarthy/Waterloo Region Record

 

Paige frame software allows an elderly person to easily start a video call with a loved one. Peter Kirkpatrick developed the technology when his mother’s health started to decline.

 

The small, tablet-like device sits on a bedside table displaying an electronic clock, or maybe a digital photograph of children and grandchildren.

 

When the elderly person in the room wants to speak with one of their adult
children, they simply touch the screen. The software platform texts a son, daughter or caregiver, who taps the app on their smartphone and a video call is underway.

It is fast, simple and keeps people separated by hundreds or even thousands of kilometres connected with video calls. It is called Paige frame and the startup kiloBryte, which developed it, has about 50 devices out for testing.
Peter Kirkpatrick was inspired by his mother’s experience with aging and decline.

She was a master at duplicate bridge, and highly intelligent. That made her
cognitive decline even more frustrating. Operating technology she had used for years, such as microwaves, remote controls and smartphones, became difficult.

 

After leaving her home of 50-plus years and moving into an assisted-living
residence, her decline became more pronounced.

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“So, I built the first prototype for her,” said Kirkpatrick.

 

All his mother had to do was touch the screen on the tablet. The software sent a text message right away to Kirkpatrick’s phone, and he would respond with a video call.

 

It sat on a table beside her bed displaying the time, and pictures of her adult
children.

 

“That was the first iteration of this, and she loved it,” said Kirkpatrick.
After his mother died a few years ago, Kirkpatrick was talking about the device
with a friend, Donal Byrne. They soon decided to further develop the product and bring it to market.

They added Bob Millar to the team. Kirkpatrick is the chief technology officer,
Millar is the chief revenue officer and Byrne the CEO. The startup is now at the
Waterloo Accelerator Centre in the David Johnston Research and Technology Park.

 

Millar loved the idea of Paige frame. He too found himself stretched thin by the needs of a declining mother. It was during the pandemic and his mother was in and out of hospital, and alone.

 

“I don’t think I realized how much stress I was under around the whole thing until she passed away,” said Millar. “There was no way for me to reach her.”
The team found a tablet made in China that worked well after some changes.

 

The software they developed for the device is complex, but the user only has to touch the screen to initiate a video call.

 

“That’s all they do,” said Millar. “It really is a point-and-shoot simple thing.”
It looks like a picture frame or clock that sits on a table, so it is not a foreign-looking piece of technology with a bewildering selection of apps. It plugs into an electrical outlet, so there is no danger of batteries running out of power.
It will be marketed direct to consumers, and to institutions such as assisted-living homes and sensors’ residences.

 

A care provider can call in to check on an elderly client to make sure everything is OK. During one round of testing, a woman in England was able to have breakfast with her dad in southern Ontario every day, via a video call on Paige frame.

The 50 devices in use now are part of a paid pilot.

 

“We are starting to have conversations now with the Government of Ontario, that’s really where we want to get to, Ontario Health atHome should really have this as part of their care plan for seniors,” said Millar.

 

Ontario Health atHome was created by the province as a single point of contact, co-ordinating local home and community care, long-term care placement and help finding services in the community.

 

Millar’s father-in-law has late-stage Parkinson’s. Miller called him on Paige frame from a canoe on the lake where his father-in-law had a family cottage for years.

“And we showed him the whole lake, he was there in the boat with us,” said Millar.

 

Terry Pender is a Waterloo Region-based general assignment reporter for the Record. Reach him at tpender@therecord.com.

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