Cell phone game joins fight against cancer

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Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 20 Jul 2013 - 1:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Cell phone game joins fight against cancer

Anyone fancy a game of cancer hunting? The charity Cancer Research UK has announced a partnership with an England-based software agency to develop a game in which the general public can analyze cancer data while playing. Scientists hope the game will help them recognize new causes of cancer.

Scientists from the charity are using cancer patients' genetic fingerprints to find ways to treat the disease in a much more focused way, but they have encountered a snag: their research is producing "terabytes upon petabytes of data requiring analysis."

To analyze the data - which must be looked at by a human eye rather than by a machine - Cancer Research UK is working with a company called Guerilla Tea to develop a game called GeneGame. The potential of having thousands of eyes on the data means it can be processed quickly, rather than over the course of many years.

Amy Carton from Cancer Research UK says: "We're right at the start of a world-first initiative that will result in a game that we hope hundreds of thousands of people across the globe will want to play over and over again and, at the same time, generate robust scientific data analysis."

Cancer cells can be analyzed better by the human eye than by machine. Source: Cancer Research UK.

Though GeneGame will be released in the UK later this year, it is not the charity's first initiative involving the public. The first one, called Cell SliderTM, went live in October 2012 and uses the public to classify breast cancer samples. The initiative is helping scientists understand risks and responses to treatment.

Dr. Joanna Reynolds from Cancer Research UK is excited about past and future developments, saying: "In just 3 months, citizen scientists had analyzed data that would typically take our scientists 18 months to do and early indications of the accuracy are promising. With GeneGame we are being bolder, braver and bigger, and we hope that by the end of the year we'll have a game that not only is fun to play, but will play a crucial role in developing new cancer cures sooner - ultimately saving lives."

In developing GeneGame, Guerilla Tea is drawing from ideas created at an event that took place in March 2013 called GameJam. The gathering brought scientists and computer programmers together in an effort to generate solutions for data analysis.

The app developers garnered ideas at the GameJam event.

Though Cancer Research UK told Medical News Today the charity is unable to disclose detailed information about the mechanism of the game until it is launched, it did say that "the game will be a smartphone app, it will have social at its heart and we hope to make it reach as wide an audience as possible, globally, through all available channels."

For the GameJam event, computer programmers helped identify reasons why genes are gained or lost by comparing the genetic make up of large numbers of tumor samples in order to find common changes. They did this by using "gene microarrays" - a technique that looks at faulty cancer-causing genes.

So rather than crushing candy on our phones, we could all be crushing cancer.

Written by Marie Ellis

Copyright: Medical News Today
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ET: Now get paid, just to use your phone

Generally speaking, ads on mobile phones are a nuisance. They pop up often in free apps, look ugly and use up a little bit of your data without offering you anything in return. But that's about to change, thanks to a small US-based, start-up called Locket.

Locket recently acquired VC funding and they plan to take over an underutilised part of your smartphone: the lockscreen - what you see immediately after you press the power button but before you actually swipe to unlock.

The action of just unlocking your phone - an action you do several times a day - could earn you 1 US cent per unlock (limited by a built in algorithm). In return, Locket will place what they call a targeted, 'first glance' ad on your device's lockscreen. You don't need to interact or click on the ad if you don't want to - you get paid anyway. Based on roughly 12 hours of usage a day, you could pull in US$ 10 a month - a substantial amount of cash for doing nothing in addition to what you normally do.

You don't need to provide bank account details or credit card info either - all you need to do is download Locket to your Android phone and give in an email ID associated with a PayPal account. You can get a payout from Locket when your balance reaches $10. Currently, Locket only works in the US but depending on advertiser interest, it could spread very rapidly. Earnings are not just limited to 'unlocks' - the company is currently offering a $1 bonus for each successful referral and they also offer random cash bonuses to loyal customers.

Locket is currently available as a free download on the Google Play Store and you can find out more information at www.getlocket.com.

HOW IT WORKS

1) Sign up for a PayPal account (if you don't already have one)

2) Get locket from the Google Play Store and give them the email ID associated with your PayPal account.

3) The app replaces your lockscreen and delivers a targeted (and attractive) advertisement.

4) You can interact with the ad or just unlock your phone — you get paid either way. A built in algorithm won't pay out if you keep locking and unlocking the phone to get money. If you use and interact more with the app, it pays out more.

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Relationship Between Cell Phone Use And Fitness Level

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 13 Jul 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Relationship Between Cell Phone Use And Fitness Level

Today's smartphones allow for increased opportunities for activities traditionally defined as sedentary behaviors, such as surfing the internet, emailing and playing video games. However, researchers Jacob Barkley and Andrew Lepp, faculty members in the College of Education, Health and Human Services at Kent State University, linked high cell phone use to poor fitness in college students.

Barkley and Lepp were interested in the relationship between smartphones and fitness levels because, unlike the television, phones are small and portable, therefore making it possible to use them while doing physical activity. But what the researchers found was that despite the phone's mobility, high use contributed to a sedentary lifestyle for some subjects.

More than 300 college students from the Midwest were surveyed on their cell phone usage and activity level. Of those students, 49 had their fitness level and body composition tested. The researchers' results showed that students who spent large amounts of time on their cell phones - as much as 14 hours per day - were less fit than those who averaged a little more than 90 minutes of cell phone use daily.

One subject said in the interview data: "Now that I have switched to the iPhone I would say it definitely decreases my physical activity because before I just had a Blackberry, so I didn't have much stuff on it. But now, if I'm bored, I can just download whatever I want."

The study is believed to the first to assess the relationship between cell phone use and fitness level among any population. Barkley and Lepp conclude that their findings suggest that cell phone use may be able to gauge a person's risk for a multitude of health issues related to an inactive lifestyle.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our obesity / weight loss / fitness section for the latest news on this subject.

The study appears online in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Kent State University

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