Gravestones that talk back

Well they don't talk back directly, but a Japanese company has patented a system where a barcode-like symbol gets placed on a headstone, which when photographed by a cellphone camera, automatically takes the user to a memorial website which can be viewed on the phone.

The QR codes they talk about look something like this:

They apparently see wide use by consumers in Japan for connecting people with information using their cellphones. We in America do not have this sort of infrastructure in place, but perhaps someone could put together an alternative. This approach seems much more useful and much less expensive to implement than the video screens others have proposed for attachment to gravestones.

Here's the news brief about it from the MSNBC website:

Grave communication
Call it a tale from the e-crypt.

But Teruo and Miyoko Oba say there's nothing eerie about their new family grave site, equipped with a mobile phone bar code to offer connectivity long after their own bells have tolled.

The family plot in Kofu, a rural city near the Japanese Alps, boasts a high-tech, "QR" black-and-white square, linking the Oba's pictures and history to phone-carrying visitors who can enter virtually to pay their respects.

Tombstone maker Ishinokoe says the QR codes, which users scan to link with everything in Japan from buses to restaurant reservations, are a new way to visit its "memorial service window" grave sites that contain more than the cremated ashes of the deceased.

"We already have a patent and should get another this month, but we hope this service is not just for our customers, but the entire funeral industry," said Yoshitsugu Fukuzawa, head of Ishinokoe, which launched the product this month.

The Oba family say the new technology offers more options.

"I thought the idea was great as usually the deceased don't have any input to how a grave site is arranged," said 73-year-old Teruo.

"Visitors using this service can actually see the departed."

His wife Miyoko, 70, says kids in particular will be connected.

"It's bit of a new approach. We wanted our grandchildren to be able to use it when they visit the family site."

Fukuzawa says he hopes Ishinokoe's "window" service spurs on the funeral industry, while bringing families closer together.

"Nowadays most memorial services are simplified to under five minutes of just burning incense and offering flowers," he said. "I hope our grave site changes that and families stay near the tomb and talk about memories of the deceased for a long time."

We just hope people don't freak out if their cell-phone battery dies.

Comments

[Lauren]

Very interesting. It sounds a bit like the Memory Medallion, except I think the Memory Medallion requires you to plug into it at the grave site. I guess that would mean only one person can be plugged in at a time. The advantage of using QR codes is that multiple users can view it at the same time. The possibilities of additional services they can offer via the memorial service using the same QR infrastructure is pretty exciting.

[Corrie]

What an incredible innovation for online memorials. I agree that I don't think the US has that connection with the cell phone the way they do overseas but the notion of instant online connections from the burial site to the home is definitely the next step.