DreamLab was developed in 2015 by the Vodafone Australia Foundation to support research projects on cancer, but in the middle of the pandemic it gains a new purpose. The Portuguese can help scientists at Imperial College London to speed up their research on the treatment of COVID-19, by installing the app and doing something they can normally do: charge the smartphone while they sleep, but having the application active.
The app combines artificial intelligence with the processing power of smartphones, creating a virtual supercomputer capable of analyzing millions of data. In this way, while charging your mobile phone, you are "powering" the Imperial College London system.
With the algorithm now being reprogrammed to be used in the COVID-19 combat, the great advantage of this app is "speed and ease of processing", guarantees Vodafone in a statement. "While a computer connected 24 hours a day would take decades to process this data, a network of 100,000 smartphones, with the application active at night, can do the same job in just two months," he explains.
In a first phase, the research project aims to identify medicines and food molecules with antiviral properties. With the conclusion of this collection, it is intended to optimize the combination between these drugs and food, to improve their effectiveness in the treatment of the coronavirus. The researchers believe that, in the long run, this work could accelerate access to effective drugs and allow personalized treatments against the new coronavirus.
In a statement, the President and CEO of Vodafone Portugal and President of Fundao Vodafone Portugal, is proud of the launch of this project. "This is the true example of how technology can be used to improve people's lives, and more relevant, it becomes when everyone can contribute, says Mrio Vaz.
All Portuguese can thus contribute to this investigation by downloading the free app for iOS and Android, available in 10 other countries, including Spain and Italy. The company recommends using Wi-Fi when using this app, but guarantees that Vodafone customers will not be charged for the mobile data used by this application.
