[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/51887079 width=600]
Built using simple materials like bamboo and biodegradable plastic, Massoud Hassani‘s Mine Kafons are kinetic sculptures that save lives. Carried by the wind, the tumbling dandelion-shaped orbs cover large swaths of land scattered with abandoned land mines. As the plastic pads that cover its outer surface detonates the ordnance, the device absorbs the impact of the blast with minimal damage.
36 thoughts on “Massoud Hassani’s Mine Kafon”
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Great idea! I would also fit a GPS-logger inside so you would be able to see which parts of land were covered and should maybe considered save! Maybe also fit a sensor to detect and mark explosions?
I really wouldn’t consider anything that this device covers to be “safe”, simply too many random variables. Still its worthwhile if it detonates a single mine that otherwise probably would have been set off by a person, then it is worthwhile.
I do think datalogging would be a huge boon, knowing where it detonated mines might help zero in on areas and concentrations which would allow for more effective gridded mine sweeping.
follow the link to the project documentation:
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sry, wrong format.
Here the text from the documentation:
[…] a GPS chip [is] integrated in it. You can follow its movement on the website and see were it went, where are the safest paths to walk on and how many land mines are destroyed in that area. […]
Totally agree here. Too many randoms.
There are scanners that are amazingly accurate but cost and interest so far limit their use. The production of landmines by all nations needs to be outlawed now!
Good luck with that. Great in theory, but treaties are not worth the paper they are written on.
Yes, there are many random variables. See this simulation of the mine kafons. As more are added into an area it appears that the effectiveness decreases. http://inhabitat.com/massoud-hassanis-mine-kafon-detonates-landmines-in-war-torn-areas/tots_massoud_hassani_mine_kafon-537×357/
Beautifully AWESOME!
It makes me sad, such an elegant thing with such a tragic purpose. Seeing things like this make me wish I lived in a world where interesting things like this didn’t have a purpose.
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I’ve got to imagine that for just a small bit more cost, the central cores could be fitted with a motor assembly and remote control to allow finer tuning of the search area. Actually, this seems the perfect application for some form of robot swarming technology. The problem comes when the kafons don’t identify any more mines. How can you be sure that there aren’t any more, or that a few didn’t detonate, but may still be active.
The design could be adapted for terraforming as well seeding regions with new plant cover even for terraforming Mars!
That’s an awesome invention. I’d like to see more footage of the explosions, though.
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A raspberry pi controlled, robotic version using cheap 2nd hand components from used mobile phones should be reasonably easy and cheap to build.The phones could provide video cameras and positioning systems (either using gps or wifi signal strength). Stepper motors could be salvaged from broken floppy disk drives.