How to Use Vodafone's DreamLab App

DreamLab is an app that allows you to contribute to cancer research while sleeping. Powered by Vodafone Australia in collaboration with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, the app uses your Android smartphone's idle processing power to help solve ongoing problems in cancer research. All you need to do is plug in your phone at night and connect to the Internet; your phone will donate its unused computing resources towards cancer research while you sleep. If you've ever used BOINC and the SETI@home project, then you'll love this one. See Step 1 to learn how you can help accelerate cancer research using just your phone.

EditSteps

EditSetting Up the App

1. Download the DreamLab app from the Google Play Store. At the moment, the app is only available for Android users. Your phone must be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher to be able to use the app.^[1]
   
   • The URL of the app in the Play Store is http://ift.tt/1hNjeFO.
2. Choose the project you would like to contribute to. Garvan is currently researching four projects; you can contribute to however many projects you want.
   
   • Breast cancer: Researching the mechanism behind chemotherapy-resistant tumours
   • Ovarian cancer: Searching for genetic mutations that causes ovarian cancer tumours to grow and become resistant to medications
   • Pancreatic cancer: Finding the right therapy that's suitable for an individual patient's cancer diagnosis and stage
   • Prostate cancer: Looking for an explanation as to why some patients respond well to medication and why some don't
   • After this screen, you'll be invited to join a mailing list for periodic updates on Garvan's research projects. This is optional and not required to use the app.
3. Choose how much data you would like to donate each month. In order to connect with Garvan, DreamLab must use either a Wi-Fi or mobile data connection. There are limits in place to prevent overage charges. At the initial first-time setup, you choose a data limit, but you can adjust this limit as well as configure Wi-Fi in the app's settings.
   
   • When using mobile data, you can choose to use up to 50 MB, 250 MB, or 500 MB per month. If you are a Vodafone Australia customer, you will not be charged to use data. For everyone else, including those living outside of Australia, you will be charged as per your data plan.
   • When using Wi-Fi, you are free to use an unlimited amount, but can also have a limit of 250 MB, 500 MB, or 1 GB if you wish.
   • Using the app while roaming will incur international rates as per your carrier's policies.
4. Tap the gear to access the app's settings. Here, you can configure the data connection settings (including disabling mobile data and using Wi-Fi instead), learn more about the app, as well as sign up for research updates.
   

EditUsing the App

1. Connect to mobile data or Wi-Fi. Navigate to your device settings and turn on data or connect to a stable Wi-Fi network. Remember that the app will respect the data limits you set to avoid overage fees.
   
2. Plug your phone into AC power. The app will automatically start when your battery level reaches 95%, but you can manually start the process by pressing the play/pause button.
   
3. Go to sleep at night knowing you're helping to fast track cancer research. Of course, you don't always have to be asleep in order to donate processing power! As long as you're plugged in and online, you can help with research. For those curious, here's a breakdown of how DreamLab works.
   
   • Cancer research is hindered by the limited availability of supercomputers needed to process complex data. DreamLab harnesses the combined processing power of thousands of smartphones to help Garvan researchers solve problems through a dedicated supercomputer.
   • When your phone is plugged into power and connected to the Internet, DreamLab will download a tiny piece of the research problem (we're talking several hundreds of KB) and use an algorithm to solve the problem using your phone's unused processing power generated by the CPU. The results are then uploaded to Garvan's cloud servers to be analyzed by researchers who will attempt to identify patterns in the mutated genes of cancer patients to find more effective treatment options.
   • You shouldn't experience any drawbacks while using this app. Since your phone is plugged into a power source, your battery won't excessively drain. You also have full control over how much data the app uses, and DreamLab will stop once you hit a monthly limit. Depending on how your mobile data and Wi-Fi plans are set up, you shouldn't expect to run into overage problems.
4. Wake up in the morning with a sense of accomplishment! You can see how long DreamLab has been running and how many research problems your phone helped to solve. Unplug your phone to stop the processing. It'll take you to the home screen where you can see the cumulative time that DreamLab has been running, the total number of problems you've solved, and the overall completion progress of the research project.
   

EditSources and Citations

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