WORK · CASE STUDY · BUDDY
Buddy
BUILT · 2026 · ALMONTE + OTTAWA
A voice in the kitchen for Dad and Connie.
Dad is 90. Everyone on Cape Breton called him Buddy his whole life. My mother Connie is 78 and has Alzheimer’s. They live in Almonte, forty minutes from me. I visit every week. The other six days I worry.
Buddy is what I built to be in the room when I can’t be. A Mac mini on the kitchen counter, a camera, a small round speakerphone, and a screen with a simple face on it. It listens for its name, it talks back, and it keeps me posted.
Read on Skip to statusI named it after Dad because that’s who it is. Steady. Unhurried. Says “dear” the way people from Cape Breton do, without thinking about it.