Skip to content
Health & care

Technology for connection & care

Technology that helps us care for one another.

A familiar voice. An easier conversation.
A way to stay close.

Exploring how software can support connection, communication, and everyday life when memory or speech becomes difficult.

Explore the projects
Family connection, a familiar voice, and communication, connected by a single flowing line.A FAMILIARvoice.A way to stay close.MORE ROOM FORyour voice.DESIGNED AROUND PEOPLE
Small interventions.Deeply human possibilities.
Care. Connection. Communication.

The question that drives us

Can technology be a form of medicine?

Sometimes, what someone needs is reassurance. A connection to their family. A way to express themselves.

Sometimes, the person caring for them needs room to rest.

These are the needs behind our work in health and care: practical experiments in using technology to offer relief, preserve independence, and help people care for one another.

Three projects. Different approaches.
The same belief in a little more possibility.

Work in progress, care in practice

Small tools.
Meaningful connections.

Built around real people and the moments that matter. Here’s what we’re exploring.

FamiliarMade for staying close
A little moment from our weekend.

A little window into family life.

An interactive illustration · choose a moment
01 / FamiliarConnection, made simpler

Staying close,
with less to figure out.

Sharing a photo or answering a call can become difficult when the interface gets in the way. For someone living with dementia, even a familiar device can become confusing.

Familiar turns a tablet into a simple window into family life. Photos take centre stage. Calls can connect automatically. Family members manage the display remotely, so staying involved doesn’t depend on remembering which button to press.

Family photosSimple callsRemote support

How much of the effort of staying connected can we take off the person who needs that connection?

GranophoneCare, shared
Someone needs a familiar voice.
Share the callSomeone is available
Share a messageEveryone needs a break

A small call. A shared responsibility.

An interactive illustration · explore both paths
02 / GranophoneReassurance, within reach

A familiar phone.
A little breathing room.

When someone living with dementia calls repeatedly, the need for connection can be real every time. For the family member answering, the calls can become exhausting.

Granophone shares calls across family members and makes room for breaks. When nobody can answer, personal recordings offer familiar voices, stories, and messages of affection—all through the phone they already know.

The next exploration

An interactive phone assistant for stories, saved questions, weather, and conversation.

How can we offer reassurance while making care more sustainable for the people providing it?

A conversation, continued
Someone asks

“Would you like to go outside?”

Your words

A thought, waiting for your voice.

Illustrative replies · choose a direction, then your words
03 / Communication keyboardEarly experiment

More room for
your voice.

Conversation moves quickly. When speaking requires selecting letters one at a time, it can be difficult to make a joke or respond before the moment has passed.

This experimental keyboard combines speech output with AI suggestions for whole replies. Select a response, start writing your own, or choose hints to steer the conversation in another direction.

Designed around dwell-based selection, with eye-controlled communication as its intended use. The ambition: less effort between knowing what you want to say and being able to say it.

Can we make assisted communication feel more like taking part in a conversation?

A personal starting point

It started
with my family.

Familiar and Granophone grew out of trying to help my grandmother as her dementia progressed.

My father carried much of the responsibility for her care. I started building small tools to share that responsibility across our family and make it easier for us to stay connected.

That experience is the starting point for this work. Each project explores a particular barrier—and what might become possible if we could make it smaller.

Jean-Marc

Founder, Empathy Works

Good things start with a conversation

What could we
make possible?

These projects are at different stages, with plenty still to learn. If you live with these challenges, support someone who does, or work in care or accessible communication, I’d love to hear your perspective.

Let’s talk jeanmarc@empathy.worksFor people with lived experience, care professionals, and curious collaborators.