Mobile game Sea Hero helps in the fight against dementia

By playing the Sea Hero game, users will provide anonymised data to scientists
The game will help advance traditional dementia research by decades
Sea Hero has been developed by Deutsche Telekom in cooperation with scientists and game developers

Sea Hero is an attractive and innovative mobile game, but it is also a unique project allowing scientists to obtain the most extensive amount of data worldwide, which will subsequently help them during the research and treatment of dementia. The game, which is being launched by Deutsche Telekom and its subsidiary T-Mobile in the Czech Republic, was developed in cooperation with Alzheimer’s Research UK, University College London, University of East Anglia and game developers Glitchers. The game can be downloaded free of charge on smartphones and tablets using the Android or iOS operating system.

“The Sea Hero game is truly unique and scientifically beneficial. People can have fun playing it and, at the same time, provide valuable information to scientists who would otherwise collect such data over the course of decades,” says Prof. MUDr. Jakub Hort, Ph.D., of the Department of Neurology, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague and Motol University Hospital, who is the specialist sponsor of the project in the Czech Republic.

“Dementia significantly diminishes the quality of life and, according to expert estimates, it will affect 135 million people by 2050. We believe that modern technologies have the potential to change people’s lives for the better and can reverse this negative trend,” says Milan Vašina, T-Mobile’s Managing Director, explaining why the operator is backing the project.

Players of Sea Hero become seafarers who cruise the seas and oceans and take snapshots of their inhabitants, employing in particular their sharp eye and fast reflexes and spatial navigation. Impaired spatial navigation is one of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most frequent cause of dementia. By playing the game, users will help scientists better understand the process and distinguish when impaired spatial navigation is the natural consequence of ageing and when it is a symptom of a disease. This will then enable the development of new and much more precise tests to diagnose dementia and progress in the treatment of this condition.

All data recorded while playing the game are anonymised and automatically sent to Deutsche Telekom’s secured server. Players do not need to enter any personal data; only when they wish to enhance the scientific value of data, they can provide information about their gender, age and country of residence. Data thus collected will then be provided to University College London, where they will be analysed by scientists. The time saving as compared with traditional research is huge: if 1,752 people play Sea Hero for at least two minutes each, doctors will obtain data equal to that collected in one year of traditional research. If Sea Hero is played by 100,000 users for the same period of time, scientists will obtain the amount of data that they would gather in 57 years of traditional research.

The local partner of the Sea Hero project in the Czech Republic is the Alzheimer Foundation - Czech Republic, which is focused on supporting the research of Alzheimer’s disease and other brain diseases that lead to cognitive disorders and dementia (for more information, please visit alzheimernf.cz).

The Sea Hero game can be downloaded in the localised version free of charge on Google Play and the Apple Store. More information is available on the dedicated website at seahero.cz.

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.