How can a game app help fight dementia?
Mobile game app called Sea Hero Quest is built to help researchers understand the chronic disorder or mental illness known as dementia. The game follows the story of a father and son's journey to discover sea creatures.
The creators behind this mobile app are the scientists from University College London and the University of East Anglia, Fortune reports.
The group of scientists collaborated with Alzheimer's Research U.K. and Deutsche Telekom for this mobile game. According to the group, the game is useful to collect data for dementia research. USL neuroscientist Dr. Hugo Spiers that their project is "something nobody has ever done before."
"We're hoping to learn from the data how well people do at different ages, across men and women, and different places in the world and that will give us this really wonderful database. This is something nobody has ever done before and I'm very proud that we're doing this in the UK," Spiers told Gizmodo.
This free mobile game is available in the Google Play store. The challenges of this mobile include navigating a ship to predetermined areas in order to help better understand people's navigational skills. The game also includes basic questions that users should answer. The user should determine how they differ across ages,locations, and genders.Another challenges are shooting flares and capturing images of creatures they will encounter.
Data that will be gathered during the game is tracked and stored securely and anonymously, however, it is up to the players if they want reveal their identity.
The app was launched on May 3. Since then, it has been downloaded more than 7,000 times in the Google Play Store, Tech Times reports.