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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 MARCH 2020 8 CULTURE Book Review Mystic Artist: A study of Anthony Mahoney's works 1968- 2017 John P. Portelli Anthony Mahoney THIS book is the result of long years of study and meditation by Mahoney in an attempt to translate his poetic, idyllic landscapes, dreamscapes and seascapes into something of greater value, while retaining their ro- manticism, poetry and visual pleasure. Mahoney has arrived at the peak. The road was long and winding, but the ulti- mate destination was clear. He has camped on the 'summit' to produce 'icons' he had dreamt about during fifty years of paint- ing and transformed them into a silent meditation and contemplation whilst en- joying the true beauty of nature. 'This is mysticism at its best' - Norbert Ellul-Vincenti 'Most of Mahoney's paintings are the direct product of his mystic core, which emit messages from a deeply meditated and private theolog y' - Dominic Cutajar University engineers build brain-controlled devices THE latest project focused on brain-controlled human-machine interfaces at the University of Mal- ta is the development of a motorised bed that allows a person with re- stricted mobility to control it direct- ly through brain signals. The project, called BrainApp, is financed through the FUSION fund of the Malta Council for Science & Technology. The research team made up of Dr Tracey Camilleri, Prof. Kenneth Camilleri, Dr Owen Falzon and Ing. Rosanne Zerafa, members of the Department of Systems and Con- trol Engineering and the Centre for Biomedical Cybernetics at the Uni- versity of Malta, has teamed up with Maltese industrial partner 88.eu to integrate algorithms, programming and hardware into a complete sys- tem. Motorised beds are typically con- trolled through a remote control, al- lowing the users to change the incli- nation of the back rest, foot rest and other sections of the bed as required. However, if a person has some im- pairment, such as due to a stroke or locked-in condition, using this re- mote would be impossible and these individuals have to constantly rely on the support of their carers. The brain-controlled motorised bed has replaced this remote con- trol with icons displayed on a tablet and an EEG headset that measures the brain activity non-invasively from the scalp of the user. The user attends to one of the icons and the system will automatically detect the icon being chosen to generate the as- sociated bed function. All this with- out the click of a button. The BrainApp team believes that brain control could become the new communication channel of the fu- ture. "Our experience and growing in- terest in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) provide an opportunity to in- novate and break new ground. BCIs are expected to become a ubiquitous alternative means of communication and control not on- ly for individuals with limited mo- tor capabilities but also for healthy individuals." And they are not alone in thinking so; just last year, the US agency responsible for the devel- opment of military emerging tech- nologies, DARPA, has funded an ambitious brain machine interface program intended to develop weara- ble devices to allow soldiers to com- municate directly with machines. Facebook is also presently working on a non-invasive EEG headset for text generation from brain activity. The question remains as to wheth- er this technology has advanced well enough to make it practical for everyday use. Identification of the icons desired by the user can be achieved at over 90% accuracy. Sev- eral companies are developing EEG headsets that offer good and reliable brain signal quality and are claimed to be comfortable enough to be used for long hours. Combining this with the growing interest of using brain signals as a means of control for digital games, has created a commercial drive to re- duce the cost of these devices. These driving forces offer a promise that BCIs may soon be available for daily use. Interested to know more about the possibility of a brain-controlled mo- torised bed? Contact us via email if you're interested in giving feedback. The research team made up of Dr Tracey Camilleri, Prof. Kenneth Camilleri, Dr Owen Falzon and Ing. Rosanne Zerafa, members of the Department of Systems and Control Engineering and the Centre for Biomedical Cybernetics at the University of Malta