Harvard Researchers Combine iPhone & Metal Detector To Create Effective Mine Hunting Machine
by Joe White
May 10, 2011
Harvard researchers are currently in the process of developing an iPhone app that can search out landmines. More specifically, the app creates a visual image of what "landmine hunters" believe might be a dangerous, explosive object, lurking underground.
Essentially, the researchers have combined an iPhone with a metal detector to create a new kind of landmine scouting device: PETALS - "Pattern Enhancement Tool for Assisting Land mine Sensing." The creation is a cheaper way for people in the third world to detect landmines, and - as the iPhone app used quite literally "maps out" the location of a mine - the method is more effective, too.
In fact, according to Engadget, the use of PETALS improves mine hunting by around 80 percent - an impressive figure.
There you have it: Another way Apple's iPhone is proving itself to be more than "just a smart phone." You can keep up to date with the progress of PETALS by visiting its official webpage.
[via Gizmodo]
