This may seem strange, but it may be life saving.
Essentially place a metal detector on the boots of soldiers, which instead of beeping, vibrates the stronger you get to a magnetic field. Which hopefully in this case is a landmine.
While you may get false positive, if a soldier is trained to discern the type of vibrations, and if the detector is calibrated to filter out most erroneous metal signature, the solider will be able to have one extra sense to avoid landmines.-- mofosyne, Mar 03 2011 Another HB first? https://www.youtube...watch?v=0dYNXFRR5gc [doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2019] Wearing socks with sandals metal detecting guy... https://www.geeky-g...EXliocZ7asr8U7u8FO0...you're one of us. [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 06 2019] Many mines are designed not to trigger metal detectors.-- Voice, Mar 03 2011 I think the mine detecting boot would mostly end up on a long stick. Suspect mini Manhattan Project style technological race would ensue to create the first successful flip-flop detecting mine as the soldiers would have to wear something on the now exposed foot.-- not_morrison_rm, Mar 03 2011 Great idea that appears to have caught on. (link)-- doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2019 But the linked technology is at the "conceptual stage". I think that (a) you'd struggle to detect a metal mine until your foot was six inches away from it (b) you'd fail to detect modern metal-free mins and (c) if you cranked up the sensitivity enough to make it work, you'd be stopping every three paces because of false positives from bullets, junk, shrapnel.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 06 2019 I assume you'd be able to calibrate it to specifically react to the profile of a land mine.-- doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2019 I will see your military grade boots and raise you a pair of sandals. [link]-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 06 2019 //you'd be able to calibrate it to specifically react to the profile of a land mine// Basically no. There are only a couple of parameters that metal detectors can pick up, so imagine an X-Y graph with a blob somewhere on it that equates to "landmine". Now throw on some more blobs that equate to four different calibres of bullet. Now paint on a huge diagonal smear that equates to steel shrapnel of different sizes. Now add a few more diagonal smears to represent brass debris of variable size, and a couple of common alloys. A few more blobs for ring-pulls and foil wrappers.
If you can still see your landmine blob, now put the whole chart in water and smoosh it around a bit so that everything smears, to allow for the fact that any of these objects can be anywhere from on the surface to a few inches below it. Smear things a bit more because soil can be wet or dry, and iron-rich or iron-poor, which affects the readings. Give it another smear to allow for the fact that any object (apart from a landmine) might be at any orientation.
Now, if your landmine blob is still clear and cleanly separated from all the other blobs, you can start walking across the minefield and I'll meet you on the far side, literally or metaphorically.
This is one of the reasons why metal detectors have only a few settings, and not a selector switch to choose between gold coins, silver coins, non-ancient coins, viking helmets and bullion bars.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 06 2019 //you'd be able to calibrate it to specifically react to the profile of a land mine// Basically no.//
Then who's been selling these mine detectors that are of absolutely no use?
I built a metal detector once when I was a kid. Little things like coins made a little noise, big things like land mines, buried pipes and such made the thing scream.
By calibrate I mean turn down the sensitivity to react only to the large object you're looking for. And you can control the sensitivity. It would also be quite easy to make it only react to small objects such as coins and ignore big ones like the land mines, at least as far as indicator sounds, lights, vibrations etc. I probably could have modified my little kit metal detector to do that with a little work.-- doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2019 // large object //
Antipersonnel mines are quite small; one that hasn't bern armed will fit in the palm of your hand*. Antivehicle mines are much bigger, but won't initiate on the ground pressure of an average human - even a soldier carrying a full load of equipment. Even in WW2 the German "glasmine" (q.v.) was very difficult to detect.
It is possible to make an undetectable metal-free antipersonnel mine, with a low-signature composition that's hard to sniff, especially when buried just a few centimetres. The only effective clearance method is mechanical.
*If it has been armed, that's very bad news. The blast has low lethality but is still extremely damaging.-- 8th of 7, Jul 06 2019 Well, no detection method is perfect. Better a pair of metal detecting sandals than nothing.
By the way, I like how people seeing you on the beach with one of these will assume that thing on your ankle is a court ordered house arrest thingy.-- doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2019 No - because it gives you a false sense of security.
A false negative is incredibly dangerous and will increase casualties.-- 8th of 7, Jul 06 2019 I suspect that most mines are deployed in areas where recreational warfare is a way of life. So, there's going to be shell casings, bits of rebar from former hospitals, and the like.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 06 2019 I'm sure there are relatively metal free areas the kids could play in after using their metal detecting sandals to find them. I mean, there are two ways to use a kid to detect a land mine. Although I suppose you could say the old fashioned way effectively gets rid of the land mine as well as detecting it, I vote for metal detecting sandals method.
Although the money might be better spend putting one of those spinny chain things on a tractor and just clearing out areas for the kids to play in.
OK, so even if these won't bring glorious civilization to the third world you have to admit they're a pretty neat idea.
No objections to using them for beach combing right?
Well, there you go. Bun well earned. I rest my case. I don't know how I ended up with a case, but I rest it.-- doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2019 Are you sure it's just a case? Why is it ticking? Oh, it's stopped.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 06 2019 Sounds like a job for quantum chips. An accurate level of ground imaging for the item identifying degree.-- wjt, Jul 07 2019 If the mines are giving off chemicals perceptible to a canine olfactory sense then there might an airborne spectral reflection and therefore data for AR.-- wjt, Jul 07 2019 random, halfbakery