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Technology

Designer Creates Rolling, Landmine-Detonating Ball Based on Childhood Toy

Oct. 22, 2012 12:46pm Liz Klimas

Locating and removing landmines is dangerous process. That’s why designer Massoud Hassani developed a landmine detonator with the intent that it would roll around an implanted area setting off the bombs without the potential cost of human life.

The 25-year-old originally from Afghanistan, who fled at age 14 and is now living in the Netherlands after studying at the Design Academy Eindhoven, created Mine Kafon, a wind-powered, inexpensive device for setting off the explosives.

Designer Massoud Hassani Refining Mine Kafon in the Hopes It Has a Future in Safer Landmine Detonation

Mine Kafon (Image: Vimeo screenshot)

On his website, Hassani explains inspiration for the rolling design stemmed from a childhood toy.

“We used to race against the other kids on the fields in our neighborhood,” he wrote. “There was always a strong wind waving towards the mountains. While we were racing against each other, our small miniatures rolled way to fast and too far. Mostly they landed in areas where we were not allowed to step a foot on. Those areas were properties of great dangers and landmines. It was full of them. I still remember those friends that we have lost and saw them getting injured.”

(Image: Vimeo screenshot)

From this idea, Hassani made his rolling landmine detonator 20 times bigger and heavier. The Mine Kafon also has a GPS device embedded so users could monitor where it goes, finding the safest places to walk.

“In Afghanistan there are 10 million land mines on paper. In fact there are much more,” Hassani wrote. “Every destroyed land mine means a saved life and every life counts.”

Working with the Dutch Explosive Disposal Ordnance Unit, Hassani tested the design earlier this year but found it was not yet ready for its intended purpose. He hopes the unit will help him refine his design.

In May, BBC featured Hassani’s Mine Kafon, stating that its construction of bamboo “legs” and plastic “feet” only costs $50. Mine-detecting experts said at the time the Mine Kafon will need to be improved in the way of it being able to withstand multiple blasts to continue clearing a mine field. It is also a downside that it requires wind to move and is most effective on flat, open ground. The device does show promise though for indicating that an area should be marked as dangerous for mines.

Hassani constructing the Mine Kafon. (Photo: MineKafon.blogspot)

A documentary of Hassani and his Mine Kafon is being created by Adent Film. Watch this recently released teaser trailer:

(H/T: Daily Mail)

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Comments (40)

Cataclysm
Posted on October 23, 2012 at 2:57pm
problem is some mines need weight to set it off…. that thing doesn’t look heavy enough to do any good.

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Tickdog
Posted on October 23, 2012 at 12:44pm
hmm.. i see it coming. i just step to the side and let it roll by.. no problem.. and i guess we paid this guy millions to create this toy.

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Mikev5
Posted on October 23, 2012 at 8:57am
Sorry guys but this thing is so stupid as to be ridiculous think people before you smile

The thing covers a very small area as it moves along and if it doesn’t catch anything on its first roll then who gets to go fetch it? Don’t you think this puts more people at risk? The next thing is it’s a one hit wonder getting destroyed with one blast you would need dozens and dozens of these things to clear one small area that’s a lot of destroyed junk now littering the place up plus you would never get all the mines so potentially it’s even more of a hazard as now someone will need to pick up all the debris from this amazing piece of junk.

This thing is a lot of show and no go in my opinion just like Obummer

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- DrunkGOP_Hack
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 2:30pm
  Ok.
  Well, you get on out there, we’ll be right behind you and your wide swath!
  What you got!?!?!
  nada, zip, zero!
  
  Report this comment
Exiled
Posted on October 23, 2012 at 12:30am
Did I miss in the article where it said which government he works for? Oh, that’s right, he’s doing this PRIVATELY. Imagine that!

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- 13thCousinOfTheAntiChrist
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 1:08am
  He didn’t build that. Obama did while personally hunting down and killing bin Laden.
  
  Report this comment
- Mikev5
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 9:14am
  You forget one thing the Government would still need to investigate it as being safe sound and not dangerous think child seats and how it needs to pass all the safety test to get an ok to produce them this will jack the price up so high as to make this thing super expensive to make probably in the thousands per ball.
  
  Making things safe makes them expensive
  
  Report this comment
- Mikev5
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 9:27am
  Our Government now controls every aspect of our lives what is safe what is usable or not usable.
  
  The thing is we did this to ourselves we cried and cried that we need protection from bad products from what we perceived as unfair business practices unfair prices unfair everything under the sun we decided we would rather have the Government protect us than taking that responsibility on ourselves as educated consumers. So now we are controlled by our Government not by US as individuals.
  
  We fell for the big Government trap we are now doing as our Government wants from us not the other way like it should be we have lost control.
  
  Report this comment
jkurtz
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 10:44pm
Finally someone doing something constructive….Obamaroids might they it

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FatManChew
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 8:38pm
Add a rumba motor in the middle and there you go.

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JIMC5499
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 4:55pm
If it is stupid and it works, it isn’t stupid.

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- Chuck Stein
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 2:40am
  Right on! An engineering term for something that is simple and effective is “elegant”!
  
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dont_drive_slow_in_the_left_lane_obliviot
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 4:25pm
party on, dude.

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CaptRory
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 4:00pm
As a “Proof of Concept” experiment I think it’s a success. Sort of, “It works on a basic level so now we can improve it.” There’s no point in spending a billion dollars developing an idea if it doesn’t work at even the most basic level.

In this case 1) It Rolls 2) It sets off Mines 3) It’s cheap.

If they can make it survive repeated blasts I think they’d have a winner. Just because a tool has a narrow focus doesn’t mean it isn’t useful, especially if it’s cheap. Third world countries don’t have a lot of money to throw around. Set one of these loose in a field, and if it removes half the landmines in it, that’s half as many mines you need to disarm by hand.

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Master_and_Commander
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 3:33pm
this is brilliant, I love seeing simple innovations like this being put to great use. God bless this guy

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- Bangstick
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 3:46pm
  Yea, it worked. Once.
  
  Now, who is going to go out into the minefield to retrieve it so it can be used again?
  
  Report this comment
- Chuck Stein
  Posted on October 23, 2012 at 2:41am
  @ bangstick — send in more (they are cheap).
  
  Report this comment
Angry-Elf
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 3:02pm
I like it. It’s low tech, simple and elegant and a great way to have fun! Can be a Real Blast too!

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scrapadapolis
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 3:02pm
Nice Idea in poor countries.We have sattlites that take magnetic resonate pictures.They dont work so well in well populated areas but are still seen as magnetic xray pictures.Beach heads and open fields are the places best suited..O’wait did I just give out a government secret

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NinjaJuice
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 2:59pm
Nice idea but Why not create one that automatically find the mine, absorb the shock and explosion and go to the next mine?

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- NW_SOL
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 3:42pm
  Why not invent a time machine and go back and destroy all land mines before they are ever created?..
  
  Report this comment
- grayling646
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 11:42pm
  We already have a time machine. Didn’t you see Back to the Future?
  
  Report this comment
702TruthSeeker
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 2:58pm
horrible design!!! the traditional chain drum covers a much larger area, when you watch the video you can see that the contact patch of the spere is no more than 4 square feet with gaps inbetween

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Treaty
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 2:35pm
Toilet plungers on a wooden broomstick. Brilliant!

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daxbrady
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 2:24pm
Less than impressed is an understatement

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goahead.makemyday
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:26pm
Not as as cool as using a thumper (an armored vehicle that has a rotating drum in front of it with chains that rapidly and violently hits the ground to detonate), but cost effective. However, I agree that there needs to be some core modifications for it to be applicable in real life.

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Southerner01
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:21pm
If they added a gyroscope and motor, plus an inexpensive remote control, or even a preprogrammed pattern of movement, they could, dymp a bunch of these in a minefiled and let them zoom around roomba style until they found a mine. A motorized version would still cost only $200 bucks or so, and the center core would probably be reusable.

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- JRook
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:31pm
  Mine clearance teams in Afghanistan report finding literally dozens of types of landmines, mainly from the ex-USSR, but also from Belgium, Italy, US and the UK. Perhaps the US and other allies should sign the land mine ban and stop using them. Then perhaps we wouldn’t have to spend money removing them. Perhaps then we could invest in the US. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/01/opinion/la-oe-williams1-2009dec01
  
  Report this comment
- ScreaminEagle
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 2:10pm
  Maybe one day pigs will fly.
  
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- bgotts27
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 4:18pm
  JROOK, why do you think that an international agreement to ban landmines would stop terrorists and thugs and rogue nations from using them?
  
  It would be about as effective a plan as banning chemical weapons or banning some country like Iran or Korea from having nukes; and would rank right up there with banning handguns here in the U.S.
  
  Report this comment
Mr Sanders
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:16pm
This shows promise! and its still can be mobile after the first detonation? If it had gyroscopic motor and maybe magnetometer it could direct itself, instead of randomly rolling, to each target? I wonder if those mod’s could be made cheap enough to make that work?

Wow…. just think of the applications?!

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:03pm
From the last time that I was on the beaches of Den Hague, or The Hague, this guy would be better off testing this system there. More of the beach was barbed wired away from the public with Nazi concrete bunkers all over the place. It looked as though they refused to recover from the the forties.

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:13pm
  Forgot to mention that the Nazis had so covered the beaches with mines in anticipation of an Allied invasion. Back in the mid ’80s the beaches were still so covered with them that there were paths and open areas fenced away from the mined areas. There were that many mines in the area. Yeah, I guess that I was stupid enough to wonder through the beaches.
  
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chips1
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:01pm
Chicago is known as the windy city, so let’s test it out there. Of coarse we would have to plant mines. That’s the up side.

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- jethrObama
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:08pm
  You can’t say “windy city”… that’s racist, it’s supposed to be “air redistribution city”
  
  Report this comment
- OniKaze
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:20pm
  @jethrObama
  
  Thanks for that… my sides now hurt…. Good thing Obamacare will be in effect soon… That way I can get my sense of humor removed as a preventative medical procedure to prevent this in the future…
  
  Report this comment
- chips1
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:27pm
  My bad!!!!
  
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Psychosis
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:00pm
ITS CHEAPER TO USE LIBERALS

required lower case

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coyote1hell
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 12:51pm
Buh’rack Hussiene said..uhhhh..err…duhhhh..you didn’t build that…nope…

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- Konservative PUNK
  Posted on October 22, 2012 at 1:03pm
  I think this guy is on to something. I have always beleived there must be a better way to detect and defuse mines than the traditional method, which involved belly-crawling while stabbing into the earth with a knife at just the right angle to find the button without pressing it.
  
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