Cogimetry, the engine inside Voiced Memories
Cogimetry is not a separate product and not a second app to learn. It is the part of Voiced Memories that quietly notices how someone engages with their own memories over time, using the photographs and recorded voices they are already sharing.
What it does, in plain words
When a person sits down with a familiar photograph and tells its story, several small things come through naturally. How readily the memory returns. How the telling changes, if it does. Whether they feel like sharing that day or would rather listen. One session tells you very little on its own, and Cogimetry does not treat any single moment as meaningful.
What Cogimetry looks for is the shape of many sessions together, a personal pattern that belongs to one individual. That pattern can offer an early, gentle nudge of awareness, a reason to check in, ask a question, or bring something to a doctor’s attention, well before it would otherwise surface.
It starts with your photos
Nothing new to learn. A person simply revisits their own photographs and tells the story behind them, in their own voice, at their own pace.
It compares only to them
There is no score, no grade, and no ranking against other people. The only comparison is with their own earlier sessions.
They decide who sees it
The pattern belongs to the individual. They choose whether to share it with family, a care partner, or a clinician, and they can stop at any time.
Why we are building it
Two things wear people down as they age, and they rarely appear on a medical form. The first is isolation, the slow loss of everyday conversation and being known in a community. The second is the moment a family notices something seems different and has no gentle way to understand it. The tools available at that moment usually feel clinical, and they usually arrive late.
Cogimetry grows out of reminiscence therapy, the long-standing practice of looking back over personal photographs and memories to feel more like yourself, and of care that puts the relationship before the condition. Our belief is that awareness should come from something warm that people willingly return to, not from a test they dread.
Who it serves
For families and caregivers
It can take the guesswork out of the quiet worries. Instead of wondering whether something has changed, families have a gentle, ongoing picture of how their loved one engages with their own memories, gathered through something they already enjoy.
For care teams, organizations and researchers
With consent, that personal record can support better conversations. It is not a clinical measurement and should not guide clinical decisions, but it can add a real, human dimension to the discussion about someone they are walking alongside.
What it is not
Cogimetry is non-diagnostic. It does not diagnose, predict, prevent or treat dementia or any other medical condition, and it is not a replacement for advice from a doctor or health professional. It produces no scores, no test results and no pass or fail. It is not yet available to every Voiced Memories user, because we would rather build it carefully and slowly than promise more than we can deliver.
If something has changed for you or someone you love, please speak with a health professional. That has not changed, and it will not.
Your pattern, your permission
Everything Cogimetry reflects is private to the individual. Nothing is compared to a population average, and nothing is handed to a third party by default. The person decides who sees their pattern, whether that is a daughter in another city, a care partner, or a clinician, and who does not. Sharing can be turned off as easily as it was turned on.
The platform is being developed with Canadian privacy requirements in mind, including Alberta PIPA and federal PIPEDA, with deidentified data and two separate databases as part of its privacy architecture.
Where it stands today
Cogimetry is in development and is being researched, and we say that plainly because we think you deserve to know what is ready and what is not. A feasibility and usability study was completed through the University of Alberta School of Public Health, and Life Story Cafés have been delivered in communities across Alberta. Patent applications covering the system are filed in the United States and internationally. We are refining the platform alongside older adults, families and community partners.
Cogimetry is also being developed with the long-term goal of pursuing a Software as a Medical Device pathway. It remains in development and is not currently presented as an approved medical device.