LASER-guided robotic machine guns, electronic tags that cling to soldiers’
clothing and call in mini-missiles, or fields full of simple vibration
sensors—all these could one day provide substitutes for anti-personnel
landmines, according to a report from the US National Academy of Sciences.
In 2006, the US is set to belatedly join 139 other countries in agreeing to
the Ottawa Convention outlawing anti-personnel landmines, so Congress asked the
academy to assess alternatives. George Bugliarello of the Polytechnic University
in New York, who chaired the academy’s committee, says their aim was to identify
“Ottawa-compliant” technologies that discriminate between troops and
civilians.…
