Unconventional sensory and data-fusion approaches are being investigated.

Several novel methods of detecting landmines and other buried explosive devices have been proposed and are subjects of continuing research. The use of trained dogs has been shown to be an effective method of detecting landmines, but the use of dogs is costly and can present enormous logistical problems. The objectives of the present research include, variously, supplanting the use of dogs; providing probabilities of detection sufficiently high for humanitarian purposes; enabling safe, rapid detection at low false-alarm rates as needed for military operations; and/or minimizing costs sufficiently to enable widespread application.

One novel method that is suitable for humanitarian detection and is relatively inexpensive involves the use of bacteria that would emit light, indicative of the presence of mines, that could be observed visually or could be measured. More specifically, the bacteria would be genetically engineered to luminesce or fluoresce in the presence of explosive vapors or other characteristic compounds that leak or evaporate from mines and are thus present in and near the soil in the vicinities of mines. The bacteria would also be genetically engineered so that they could be grown by untrained workers in the requisite large quantities and would not to be harmful after release into the environment.

Bacteria That Fluoresce in the presence of compounds emitted by buried mines would be grown on site, sprayed over a suspected minefield, then illuminated by ultraviolet light at night to observe glowing patches indicative of underlying mines.