21.9.2018
- HT has been participating in the worldwide initiative #gameforgood launched by Deutsche Telekom for more than two years
- Thanks to the popularity of the game, scientists who research dementia have the largest database
- According to the data of the International Association for Alzheimer's disease today almost 50 million people suffer from dementia worldwide
Today, the World Alzheimer's Day is marked throughout the world, and Hrvatski Telekom participates in it as well. For more than two years, HT has been participating in the worldwide initiative #gameforgood which launched Sea Hero Quest, a mobile game that has so far been downloaded by over four million people. Thanks to the popularity of the game, scientists who research dementia have the largest database, which would normally take more than 12,000 years of lab research.
According to data from the International Alzheimer's Association, today almost 50 million people suffer from this most common form of dementia worldwide and it is assumed that by 2050, it will affect more than 130 million people worldwide. According to the latest data from 2015, more than 86,000 people live with dementia in Croatia, and this figure is steadily increasing.
In mid-August, a respectable scientific journal Current Biology published the research conducted by the University of London and the University of Eastern England. The research was based on data from more than half a million people in 57 countries that played Sea Hero Quest, and it showed, for example, that spatial navigation skills are strongly linked to individual country GDP. The best results were shown by residents of the Nordic countries, North America, Australia and New Zealand.
Thanks to Deutsche Telekom, from this month, scientists around the world will be provided with the largest possible database through a secure web portal. The database will help them in future discoveries not only in the field of dementia but also in the wider area of neurological research.
The innovative mobile game Sea Hero Quest was launched in 2016 as part of a worldwide initiative behind which are Deutsche Telekom, Alzheimer's Research charity organization, the University of London, the University of East Anglia and the developers from Glitchers. In Croatia, it is carried out by Hrvatski Telekom in partnership with the Croatian Association for Alzheimer's disease.
"The #gameforgood initiative is just a continuation of already existing initiatives within HT, focusing on the importance of preserving the health and encouraging safe behavior and the quality of life of our employees and the whole society. To support dementia researchers around the world, with the help of technology and our customers, we create the largest database on human orientation and response speed", said Marija Felkel, Chief Human Resources Officer of HT.
Mobile game Sea Hero Quest is based on navigating islands and glaciers labyrinths, and experts then turn every second of information into scientific data. Last year, the VR version of the game was also presented in Berlin. It can also track eye movement responses and thus replicate laboratory experiments that could not be tracked using a mobile version. It is available for iOS and Android devices and can be downloaded free of charge from the App Store and Google Play.