When Taj Manku’s parents moved to Ontario in their 60s, they were independent and doing well. Then, two medical emergencies changed everything.

Manku found himself managing medical appointments, juggling family responsibilities, and worrying constantly about his aging parents’ well-being.

“They lived about an hour away, so it was tough to get there often,” said Manku, co-founder and CEO of Cognitive Systems.

At the same time, Manku was raising two adult children and running Cognitive Systems, a Waterloo-based tech company that specializes in Wi-Fi Sensing. Its core technology, WiFi Motion, is a software stack that turns everyday Wi-Fi signals into motion sensors. This powers all of the company’s products, including its eldercare solution, Caregiver by Cognitive. That solution combines WiFi Motion with plug-and-play hardware and an app to help families passively monitor loved ones at home.

When someone moves through a space, the system uses AI to recognize those changes and identify patterns in daily activity. It doesn’t capture images, record conversations, or identify specific actions. It knows if someone is up and about, how often they were restless overnight, or whether there was movement at home when they were supposed to be out.

“My parents were basically our first customers,” he said.

Designed to support (not surveil) loved ones

“My parents did not want any cameras, not even a voice-assisted device in their home,” said Manku. “They were quite concerned about it. But our system is very passive; you don’t see it. So it felt good to them.”

Each day, Manku received a check-in alert via Caregiver Aware, the mobile app Cognitive developed to showcase its full Caregiver solution.

“I set it in the morning so I always know when they wake up, and then it lets me look at their data for sleep and whether they had a lot of sleep interruptions,” he said. “It’s simple and passive, but it helps me worry less.”

Instead of constantly calling or prying into private details, Manku said the tech let him open important conversations about their health. For example, Caregiver Aware once helped Manku catch a health issue his mom hadn’t mentioned to him. Sleep information helped detect the problem, and a solution was found.

The emotional toll of caregiving

Over 42 per cent of Canadians aged 15 and older (about 13.4 million people) provide unpaid care to loved ones. Roughly 1.8 million are “sandwich caregivers” who support both aging parents and young children. Many of them spend 30 or more hours a week on caregiving, and one in four report poor mental health as a result.

Many caregivers say they feel overwhelmed, anxious, and alone, especially when they’re trying to support aging parents while raising kids or managing busy lives of their own. The constant worry can wear people down. For Manku, that mental load was the very thing he wanted to ease.

“Most people do not really want to be monitored. They just don't,” Manku said. “But there is always a loved one who needs to worry less.”

He said he designed  Caregiver by Cognitive to help turn caregiving from reactive to proactive. Instead of waiting for something to go wrong, caregivers can see subtle changes in daily routines and intervene early with empathy and context.

Addressing what doesn’t work in elder tech

For many families, Manku says the appeal of eldercare technology is often overshadowed by the headache of setup and usability. 

“Most returns happen because people just can’t get the thing installed,” Manku said. “You buy it, you’re excited, you open the box, and then you hit a wall. It’s frustrating. Eventually, people just give up and send it back.”

Manku says Caregiver by Cognitive is designed to be installed in less than five minutes, with familiar hardware and no tech expertise required. 

“We've had six-year-olds and 80-year-olds install it. We spent a lot of time on that,” he said.

The product also avoids one of the most common pitfalls in the elder tech market - requiring older adults to wear or activate something themselves. Many fall detection devices, for example, rely on pendants or smartwatches. 

“If they don't remember to wear it, then your detection of falls is zero,” said Manku.

Giving seniors fall detection devices doesn’t mean they’ll use them. In one Canadian study, none of the older adults in a focus group said they actually wore the device regularly, even though they had it. Most didn’t think they needed it until they had a fall. Others figured someone else would help them, or they had another way to stay safe.

Another review found that even after a fall, 80 per cent of seniors didn’t turn the device on, often because they didn’t want to admit they needed help, or they didn’t want to bother anyone. And yet, fall detection remains one of the most widely marketed eldercare features.

Caregiver by Cognitive takes a different approach. By using ambient Wi-Fi signals already present in the home, the system can monitor motion passively, with no need for cameras, microphones, or user interaction.

“When it comes down to privacy and dignity, I can’t really see what my parents are doing. I can’t see whether they’re doing jumping jacks or whether they’re changing their clothes. I can’t discern any of that information because that’s not something the technology does,” said Manku.

Accessible tech built for families

Canadian consumers can currently purchase Caregiver Aware, a direct-to-consumer version of the product that includes four WiFi Motion plugs and access to the mobile app.

In addition to this, Cognitive’s main business model is B2B. It licenses its technology to internet service providers and health tech partners. Through these partnerships, WiFi Motion is already embedded in over 17.5 million homes worldwide, often under different brand names.

Manku says it won’t be long before this made-in-Waterloo tech becomes a fixture in homes everywhere. The company’s B2B model helps the technology reach families at scale while keeping the installation easy and affordable.

“We wanted to make it so affordable that, even though it’s not free, it feels like it is,” Manku said. “We’re talking around $50 of hardware, and that gives you full coverage of everything I mentioned throughout the entire home.”

Why Cognitive Systems calls Waterloo home

Though its reach is global, used by ISPs in over 110 countries and active in more than 17.5 million homes, Cognitive Systems is proudly based in Waterloo

“When I started my first company around 2000, there weren’t many tech companies here,” Manku said. “But now, in 2025, we’ve built up a strong ecosystem of talent in this area. And once you’re living in Waterloo, you tend to want to stay in Waterloo.”

He credits the local ecosystem for playing a role in the company’s growth and success.

“BlackBerry also had a big influence, as you can imagine. They ended up bringing a lot of talent to this region. A lot of those people are still here and they’ve either started tech companies or they’re working for one,” said Manku. “The tech community has grown a lot since I remember in the year 2000.”

Cognitive Systems got its start with a big boost from Waterloo’s deep bench in quantum science and physics. Founded by former BlackBerry employees, the company was one of the first to receive backing from Quantum Valley Investments, the fund launched by BlackBerry (then Research In Motion) co-founder Mike Lazaridis to commercialize breakthroughs in quantum science.

Today, Cognitive holds more than 585 patents and applications, and its core technology combines machine learning with an advanced understanding of electromagnetic signals, the same physics that power quantum computing.

A founder, a son, and a mission that matters

With a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Manku has spent his career building cutting-edge technology. His latest venture, though, is grounded in something personal.

“We feel like we cracked the nut on building a caregiving solution that finally addresses the big challenges around cost, privacy and functionality,” Manku said.

Manku says Wi-Fi is almost as common as electricity, and his team is just scratching the surface of what it can do.

“It all started with trying to understand what my own parents needed,” he said. “And here we are today.”