A swimming pool in southern France has found a novel answer to an old problem.
It has introduced cutting-edge technology involving a complex system of motion detectors, cabling and door mounted traffic lights. The purpose? So customers can see if a cubicle is occupied without having to open the door to take a look.
Of course the humble door bolt has been carrying out this task with admirable efficiency for decades, but sometimes, it seems, it's just too tempting to resist replacing something which is dull but effective with a high tech solution which is computer-controlled - or electronic at the very least.
Never mind if the hi-tech solution is more expensive and doesn't carry out the function it is supposed to. Sometimes that's the price to be paid for progress.
The cyber-age changing cubicles in the Centre Sportif Richard Bozon in Chamonix, France, have no reassuring bolts on their doors to provide privacy, and no sign on the outside displaying the French equivalent of "vacant" or "engaged".
Instead, a miniature set of traffic lights mounted on the cubicle doors changes from green to red to indicate when a cubicle is in use.
Automatic for the people
These are not changed to red by the occupant using anything as low-tech as a manual switch. A motion detector camera suspended a few feet above the cubicle with its lens pointing down spies into the cubicle and changes the traffic light on the door automatically whenever it is occupied.
You cannot help but think it must have been a piece of twisted logic to allow the reassuring privacy offered by a simple but effective lock to be replaced by a motion detector camera. It is strange indeed to have cameras watching you change to ensure your privacy!
In any case, the new hi-tech system only guarantees your privacy as long as the traffic light bulb outside your cubicle doesn't blow, the camera doesn't break or get vandalised, and you maintain enough motion to keep the camera convinced that you are really still there.
Even then, with no bolts on the doors there's nothing to stop a young boy racer from "running a red light," taking advantage of the lack of locks (and cubicle traffic cops) to march in on you whatever your state of undress.
To make matters worse, each cubicle actually has two sets of doors on opposite sides. A fully clothed visitor enters a cubicle from the "street side" doors and exits from the "pool side " doors. After swimming, the process is reversed.
Face-to-farce
Since the traffic lights appear on both sides of each cubicle and because at busy periods there are not enough cubicles to meet demand, each time traffic lights change from red to green there are bedroom-farce style situations.
The dripping-wet semi-naked and the fully-clothed enter from opposite sides of cubicles and meet face-to-face in the middle to argue about the highway code as it applies to swimming pools.
Who knows who has right of way when the traffic lights at both ends of a changing cubicle are green?
The usual case for applying technology is when it provides a solution to a problem where none existed before, or when it provides a solution which is better or cheaper than existing ones.
Does an electro-optical cubicle occupancy indicator system improve on a bolt? Sometimes it may be better to forget about technology and stick to simple systems which work.