Wind-Powered Giant Ball Detonates Landmines and Uses GPS to Track their Clearing
26 Nov 2012Thanks to the advanced technology of GPS tracking and its ingenious developer, a new wind-powered ball can safely detonate landmines and track their location with a GPS tracking chip.
About Landmines
As explosive devices and used by a variety of military services, land mines exist under the ground. They are meant to detonate, or explode, from pressure of someone walking or driving over the land mines.
Landmines are placed in inexplicable places according to the desired targets. They can now be considered anti-vehicle weapons or anti-personnel weapons. They are also used to deny access to public utilities, roads, waterways, and farmlands.
Landmines as used for weapons is controversial due to the high risk of harming civilians and citizens of the developing nations. According to the United Nationals Cyber School Bus, there over 110 million land mines in 68 countries in the world. More than 2,000 people are killed each month from the land mine explosions, many of which are civilians. Over the last 2 decades, the use of land mines has increased exponentially as a way to terrorize civilians.
About Mine Kafor
The wind-propelled, tumberweed-like ball that is demonstrating success in detonating land mines is called the Mine Kafor, which was developed by Massoud Hassani.
The giant ball was inspired by a toy that Massoud and his brother used to build in their hometown of Qasaba, Kabul. They were interested in toys that would roll, and played with these toys in the windy desert of their hometown. The boys would bring their homemade rolling toys out into the hills of Afghanistan until the wind would pick them up and take them away faster than the boys could run. Growing up in an area of the world with millions of land mines, it wasn’t safe to go chasing after the toys.
The concept of rolling toys is what led Massoud Hassani to the creation of the Mine Kafor. While attending the Design Academy Eindhoven, Hassani who was then 25 years old, experimented with the rolling toys of his childhood to create a ball on a much larger scale that could take out land mines safely and effectively.
The ball in question may look like something that came straight out of a futuristic science fiction film, but in fact it has been effective at detonating landmines. Made of bamboo and biodegradable plastic materials, the Mine Kafon is able to use its plastic “feet” to detonate the landmines and prevent citizens from triggering it accidentally. The Mine Kafon moves by the wind, as it is light enough to be blown around.
The Mine Kafon ball is equipped with a GPS tracker chip, which can essentially track each landmine the ball detonates and keep the data logged into a map for online viewing.
The newest version of the Mine Kafon does not get destroyed when activating the landmines and will continue being blown away by the wind and tracking land mines with the GPS tracking device.
A documentary of the designer and low-cost landmine detonation solution is being developed, which during the shooting of the film proved that the Mine Kafon prototype worked. In addition, in 2013, Massoud Hassani and Mine Kafon will be showcased in an exposition and exhibition in New York and Paris, respectively.
Currently, Hassani is searching for collaborative technical companies, funding, and government assistance to begin producing these life saving devices.
Comments are closed.