Welcome to the Cyprus Matrix

From magic lanterns to brain wave sensors, solutions to everyday problems are being sought at a centre for excellence as science gets its moment in old Nicosia

There’s a funny – and revealing – moment at the Cyens Centre of Excellence in Nicosia, in the midst of a presentation on ‘Virtual Production and XR Technologies in Cyprus’ by Panayiotis Charalambous, one of the team leaders.

The presentation is being delivered to an audience of dancers and choreographers, to be followed by a trip to the Cyens in-house studio for a demonstration of motion capture and a look at a ‘Rokoko suit’ (with sensors). Earlier, Panayiotis talks of a “shared extended reality”, where a dancer can be fitted with such a suit – it could even be in another country – and then viewers follow a link on their phone and experience (not just watch) the performance: “Not as a video. It’d be three-dimensional”.

The sensors allow every bit of movement to be digitised and translated, he explains. But then a middle-aged woman raises her hand to ask a question.

She appears to be a veteran choreographer, given her air of authority and general bearing. That’s all very well, she objects – but creativity isn’t just about movement, it’s about what an artist feels. It’s about sensitivity.

I roll my eyes (hopefully not too visibly); for heaven’s sake, lady, that’s not what he’s talking about! Panayiotis, however, seems delighted. That’s a really interesting question, he enthuses – and yes, it would certainly be fascinating (scientists are working on it already, though not at Cyens) to place sensors on a dancer’s head too, then somehow translate their brain waves – their actual thoughts – into the experience, making the XR (extended reality) even more extended.

As he says a little later, in a different context: “Welcome to the Matrix!”.

That’s when I realise something basic about Science (and hopefully Cyens): there are no stupid questions. The entire point of the scientific method lies in treating the world as an endless laboratory (or endless playground), mixing and probing and wondering what might happen. You have to try things, and you have to dream big. The worst that can happen is to find out that something’s impossible – at least for now.

It’s the same vibe I get later, back in the main building and talking to Yiorgos Chrysanthou, general director of Cyens – who tells me about the “smell system” one of their teams is working on, putting together chemicals to try to produce natural odours in the lab. “I mean, it’s not always accurate,” he admits candidly – then shrugs, as if reaching for the mantra that justifies everything: “But it’s research”.

Yiorgos is also an academic, a professor at the Computer Science Department of the University of Cyprus, and was one of the original 10 professors (from three universities) who established the centre. The impetus – as with most groundbreaking projects – came from the EU, which put out an open call about a decade ago.

The competition “was targeting countries that were below the European average in research and innovation,” explains Yiorgos. Cyprus, at the time, “was well below” (it’s now average, and even a little above). “They had an open call, we submitted our application. There were 169 applicants from the whole of Europe – actually half of Europe, because only those that were below the average – and we came 11^th out of 169. And we were funded. We got €15 million from the European Union, and €15 million from the government.”

The whole point was to set up something big enough “that [it] could have an economic effect in the country” – which was why the government agreed to match the EU money, because it was funding something in the public interest. Three open calls went out in the mid-to-late 2010s, resulting in seven research and innovation centres sprouting up across the island.

The biggest is KIOS, at the University of Cyprus – but KIOS looks at questions of infrastructure, which is not very sexy to a layperson. Cyens, on the other hand (the second-biggest), is essentially “an ICT centre,” says Yiorgos, meaning Information and Communication Technology, dealing in more glamorous, sci-fi-adjacent areas like virtual reality, augmented reality, volumetrics, cognitive psychology and neuroscience, AI, animation, computer vision and so on. (Welcome to the Matrix, indeed.) It also boasts an interesting location, situated in a corner of old Nicosia that’s fast becoming a tech and entrepreneurship hub.

Something is stirring here – or perhaps one may say that it could be stirring, or should be stirring. A tourism-based economy has limits, destroys the environment, and could collapse at any moment. Our officials (at least the more intelligent ones) tend to gaze longingly across the sea at Israel, and their success in the high-tech sector – but how to replicate that model? And how to foster an entrepreneurial spirit in our rather stodgy society?

Centres of excellence help – and we now have seven, where a decade ago we had none. In a couple of weeks (April 4-5) comes the sixth annual sCYence Fair – no relation to Cyens, despite the cute moniker; it’s actually organised by the Cyprus Institute – inviting students and science enthusiasts to present and share their ideas.

Do we actually have people with ideas here? “I think we do,” says Alkis Nicolaides, a project officer in Cyens’ innovation department. “And I think we’ve been making huge strides, as a nation… We have some really strong success cases too, with start-ups from Cyprus.”

Alkis cites, for instance, The Mighty Kitchen, making “alternative protein” (a.k.a. plant-based chicken) with sales across Europe, the US and the Middle East, or EMBIO Diagnostics, making devices that monitor air quality for indoor spaces – and that’s not even counting the start-ups and companies associated with Cyens itself.

They’ve had what he calls “spin-offs”, meaning start-ups created to monetise research performed at the centre. One example is Magic Lantern, the brainchild of a team including Antigone Heraclidou, a senior research associate at Cyens.

It all started with an installation on the Ledra Palace hotel, explains Antigone, a historian and political scientist by training. That exhibition included a so-called interactive book – a physical book, “but the book was empty, and all the information was projected digitally on the book”. A short-throw projector read QR codes, changing the images as a visitor flipped the pages – and, if they hovered over a picture, it would also open videos or more information. “So it was a clever way to fit into 20 pages a huge volume of 2-D material.”

Magic Lantern, aimed primarily at museums, offers a compact version of that tech, along with a content editor so the museum “can change the content of the book any time they change an exhibition”. Interactive books aren’t a new technology, but others lack the content editor and their version is also cheaper, says Antigone. The start-up has already passed one ‘accelerator’ – it was one of six (out of 84) ideas approved by IDEA, the Bank of Cyprus programme – and is now hoping for around €100,000 in seed money from the Research and Innovation Foundation to really take off.

That’s just one example – but the message is clear. Antigone reckons the aim of Cyens is “trying to find solutions to everyday problems”, but in fact – even though they have researchers working on “smart parking” and the like – its public impact has less to do with changing the lives of ordinary people, more with its role in encouraging innovation.

Much of its research is world-class, of course. It can even lay claim to achievements that literally no-one else in the world is doing. Such as? Well, it’s quite specific, admits Yiorgos – but for instance “last year we had a paper at Siggraph [a top venue for computer graphics] about how to do motion capture with just five or six markers. And it was much more accurate than anything that existed in the world”. It’s wrong – and needlessly negative – to assume that Cyprus can never compete on the world stage, just because we’re so small.

Again, though, the importance of Cyens isn’t just the research, but its role in the ecosystem – and not just Cyens, but the area around it.

Alkis mentions DareFore, probably the most successful company among the Cyens alumni. The founders (originally from Paphos) are former employees who now make sensors for athletes, especially cyclists; “I think they’ve just established their US Amazon shop”. DareFore started with a grant, he recalls, then found investment through Kinisis Ventures, a venture-capital fund whose office is just down the road from the centre. Another fund, 33 East, also opened in the area a month ago – and has already spoken with almost 200 start-up founders!

Something is stirring, culturally and indeed geographically. Nicosia municipality gets a lot of stick for its shabby treatment of the old city – but it’s not a bad idea to replace the ageing craftsmen and carpenters in this part of town with start-ups and VR studios, not to mention the knock-on effects. Scientists like to go out for a drink after work as much as (probably more than) the next man.

But the bigger change is undoubtedly the cultural one – an interest in science the way Panayiotis Charalambous seems to view it, science as a no-holds-barred conversation with a world of possibilities. The young people taking their ideas to the sCYence Fair aren’t just looking for a job in the public sector.

Science – especially computer science – has become such a growth industry that there’s actually a gap in the market. “Now, if we announce a position we get very few applicants,” says Yiorgos. “There’s so much competition that there’s a lack of technically trained people – right across Europe.” The local scene is also complicated by the recent influx of foreign tech companies – which of course offer much higher salaries.

Has Cyens lived up to its promise? Hard to say. EU funding runs out next month (it was only ever intended for seven years), and the centre still isn’t 100 per cent financially independent – but it’s getting there, forming consortiums with other countries and applying to Brussels for EU projects (they submitted around 80-90 proposals last year, “and we got 13”) as well as pitching for local projects. Meanwhile it also shores up start-ups, from offering temporary ‘co-working space’ to helping founders navigate “the well-organised jungle of EU funding”.  

Cyens is surviving – but Science is thriving. “It’s good for the country,” muses Yiorgos Chrysanthou, speaking of the new can-do spirit. “Because finally we’re moving in a direction that’s more solid. We’re producing things, new technologies – not just selling land and passports!” Sensors for brain waves coming soon, probably.