Detector identifies plastic and metal mines.

• Author: Foster, Sharon
• Position: Tech Talk - Brief Article

CyTerra Corporation, in Waltham, Mass., is putting the finishing touches on a landmine detector designed to identify plastic mines. The system was designed for the U.S. Army.

If it works as promised, the Handheld Standoff Mine Detection System will provide soldiers with a tool to detect metallic and non-metallic mines in all climates and terrain, while dramatically reducing the rate of false alarms, said David H. Fine, president of CyTerra.

The company developed this technology after a laborious 15-year research effort, funded by the U.S. Army. The service had long been searching for a reliable means of detecting non-metallic, plastic-cased mines, Fine said.

"Existing mine detectors are based on a single technology--metal detection," he explained. "Our system fuses together two sensor technologies--ground-penetrating radar and metal detection. By combining these two complementary methods of detection, we can simultaneously boost the sensitivity of each...