Why haven’t I thought of this?

By Jianggan Li | 23 March 2009 | Permanent link

Many are familiar with the story about space pens. It basically goes like this:

“During the heat of the space race in the 1960’s, the United States’ NASA decided it needed a ballpoint pen that could write in the zero gravity environment in their space capsules.

After considerable research and development, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of approximately a million dollars. The pen worked well, and even enjoyed some success as a novelty item back here on Earth. The Russians used a pencil.”

The story was not true (as most jokes are), but it highlighted an issue that is worth some thoughts – why do we need complex systems when sometimes simple solutions can achieve the same, if not better, results?

I recently visited Global Security Asia exhibition, the biannual showcase in Singapore of the latest security technologies.

As in the same event I went for in 2007, there were lots of amazing developments there, but what struck me the most was a small stand without anything running on battery or power cable – instead they had a lot of greenery.

A closer look revealed that they were no ordinary plants - each branch was hard and prickly.

Jean-Marie Zimmermann, who managed the booth, brought out a few brochures (no computer demos), and explained to me how these plants protect assets and borders.

The company Zimmermann works for produces “La Clôture Végétale” – a plants weaving technique which produces effective and yet natural (read: green) intrusion prevention at the perimeter.

There is no solid physical support for ladders; branches close to the ground prevents crawling; its complex weaving means it can’t be cleared unless by hours of (cautious) work or extremely violent means (such as bulldozers). In addition, the running costs are kept minimal and the system is supported by the plants’ roots in the ground.

Sensors can be woven into the mesh and anti-ram barriers can be hidden in the plants. These additional protection measures invisible from outside create big trouble for intruders.

The names beberis julianae, Gleditsia triacanthos and ligustrum ibota gave me the illusion of being in a Roman-era garden. Nevertheless I was not surprised to learn that instead of engineers, the company’s R&D department consists of botanists.

The choice of plants for each site of deployment, equally unsurprisingly, depends on the soil (or sand) and the best suited plants will be found, if not bred.

United States’ border with Mexico has been a longstanding headache for the government – multiple systems consisted of radars, barbed wires or even barrier walls deployed by the authorities were not only expensive (thus not able to scale), but also ineffective.

In Asia, many countries also have long borders, and the complexity of guarding these borders effectively lead to widespread objection of international treaty on banning anti-personnel landmines (Ottawa Treaty). In fact Asia is the only continent where most countries are not members of the Treaty.

Instead of sprinkling sensors (which are not only expensive but also extremely difficult to maintain) or deploying landmines (harmful in all senses), a simple green solution is probably the best way to go. In fact Saudi Arabia, which is not a member of the Ottawa Treaty, has already deployed the plant protection to some parts of its borders.

The biggest challenge for Zimmermann, as one can probably guess, is the governments ban on plant import in many countries. But he is optimistic about that, “the first buyer in a country is almost always the military or the government, the need for effective security supersedes import regulations.”

Later that evening, I had a coffee with Arnaud Chevreul, Commander of the French elite counter-terrorism force GIGN’s logistics unit. He was surprised that this most people here are unaware of this solution, since it has already been deployed in many sites in France and its effectiveness widely recognized in the country.

Zimmermann also revealed that many visitors, fascinated by the technique, all said the same thing: “why haven’t I thought of this?”