Tretech

New Zealand has a lot of trees. It's probably even possible to count how many without too much difficultly, given enough time and eyeballs. But knowing how much each tree is worth, if it's the right type to cut down for timber, and when is the right time to do that - this is a much harder problem, certainly not one solved by meandering through a pine forest and idly glancing around.

Christchurch designer Tim Cox designed a product to help - his Tretech system, which is really three products in one. A handheld hammer goes into the tree and anchors there, then an ultrasound transponder device measures the diameter, quality, and density of the wood, and sends all that data back to a handheld receiver, which also measure the height of the tree. So now you have all the data you need you need to assess the quality of the tree - add to that GPS and a camera and you've got the full information on the tree.

The Tretech system replaces a number of older and much more expensive products and promises to eliminate double handling and errors.