What a great idea

Wolfetone

I was speaking with someone the other day who is trying to set up a business. His idea is to produce headstones with embedded QR codes that link to a site where anyone can link to video, photos and information about the deceased. This can be done retrospectively as well.

I bit morbid, I know but it means that the person's memories will live on through tech. 

I just thought it was a great idea. 

Fuengi

I'd be tempted to Rick-roll on mine. 

guitargeek62

I like the concept, but can’t see a way to make the business model work - unless there’s only one or two suppliers of headstones across the country/globe? What’s stopping someone from making their own QR code and having it engraved on a plaque/headstone rather than going through this business?

*edit* Not only that, but the people I’d want to remember me would already have memories/momentos. This opens those up to the general public, and I wouldn’t want that.

skunkwerx

 I’d feel a bit rude pulling my phone out in a graveyard and paying attention to it. 

Guess I’m old skool. I prefer to crouch in silence for a few minutes, then get up and crack on. 

I guess though, I really don’t have much in the way of physical stuff from my deceased friends and family. I rely on the memories and the feeling I get when I think of them.
But I guess thats exactly what makes them worth remembering in the first place. 

Paul_C

are people still using QR codes ?

Iamnobody

I’m 100% sure I’d not want that information made public...

The idea might take off in a few years when the narcissistic selfie/instagram generation start dying en masse...

But it’s not something that I can see being a profitable business at all.

GuyR

Cadaver good idea there

thomasross20

Fuengi said:

I'd be tempted to Rick-roll on mine. 

I had to Google what that meant but very funny  

vale

i think long-term situations (being dead is pretty long term) and tech are bad mixers. graves hang around for ages, while tech is a speeding bullet.

20 years ago most people didn't even have the internet. 10 years ago we made the leap from dial up to broadband. same with mobile phone and home computer hardware.
i'm still in my thirties but i can remember backing up all my dissertations at uni on little floppy discs (late 1990s). but i haven't seen a computer with a floppy disc slot for years now.
so (curious twist of fate) my uni dissertations are less accessible to me now than someone who graduated in the 1960s and has typed copies of their disserations.

but at least i have a copy in some form, however instantly obsolete. but when all human knowledge is held in a cloud and a fuse goes... yay! so there's an argument for keeping graves simple and tech free.

if i were to have a grave (though i want to be scattered in the sea and my family know) i would want something like this. rather in marble or stone than metal, but same kind of idea.

it's a thick aluminium sheet (inches) drilled with thousands of little angled holes that catch the light just so, so when you stand in the right place you see the whole picture.
probaly a tech headache to do, requiring computer modelling and lasers to get angles just right so sun and eyes connect through all the dots to one vantage point. so hi-tech deisgn.
but once made, low-tech simple and elegant. the tech is failproof, 'solar powered' (well it is!), weather proof, multilingual, universal message, recyclable and other positive things.
next time you are in brighton you should visit it. it will make you smile.

http://www.publicsculpturesofsussex.co.uk/files/sculptures-pics/East Sussex/Brighton/Kiss Wall/BR48I11.JPG

https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/leisure-and-libraries/arts-and-culture/public-art-kiss-wall

Fretwired

Wolfetone said:

I was speaking with someone the other day who is trying to set up a business. His idea is to produce headstones with embedded QR codes that link to a site where anyone can link to video, photos and information about the deceased. This can be done retrospectively as well.

I bit morbid, I know but it means that the person's memories will live on through tech. 

I just thought it was a great idea. 

Been around for a few years .. quite a few companies doing it.

http://qr-memories.co.uk/

https://www.monuments.com/living-headstones

ESBlonde

I understand most people are cremated these days, and that's a good thing. If the present population all wanted a plot of land to be buried in we have a huge problem in these isles.

Wolfetone

ESBlonde said:

I understand most people are cremated these days, and that's a good thing. If the present population all wanted a plot of land to be buried in we have a huge problem in these isles.

I've got my plot. Nice view towards Belfast. Catches the sun in the morning. Lovely.

vale

Wolfetone said:

ESBlonde said:

I understand most people are cremated these days, and that's a good thing. If the present population all wanted a plot of land to be buried in we have a huge problem in these isles.

I've got my plot. Nice view towards Belfast. Catches the sun in the morning. Lovely.

the thing i hate about graves is the way the turf on top sinks after a few months as you rot down and the gas in your chest and stomach is replaced with maggots.

apart from that, lovely.

57Deluxe

Graveyards are a thing of the past