Talking About Colombia

Colombia has the world’s second highest number of land mine victims after Afghanistan.

A design firm in Bogotá, Lemur studio, came up with a land mine detector that fits inside a shoe. The detector, called SaveOneLife, is a coil printed on a thin conductive material, which produces an electromagnetic field, and in turn detects another electromagnetic field from large pieces of metal nearby. When it finds a mine, it sends an alert signal to a wristband. SaveOneLife is still a concept; the studio is now looking for funding to get it built.

Massoud Hassani, a designer from the Netherlands who grew up in Afghanistan, has come up with a mobile minesweeper in the shape of a dustball and as tall as a man. He called it the Mine Kafon. Made out of biodegradable plastic and bamboo, the Mine Kafon is light enough that the wind would–in theory–push it around naturally. But it is also heavy enough to set off land mines as it rolls over them.

Marian Bechtel of Pennsylvania designed a device that uses sound waves to locate land mines. Using sensitive microphones and a seismic vibrator connected to a standard metal detector, her device detected plastic and metal land mines when tested.

Related:

HRW: threats and violence will increase for land claims and families returning home.