A QR code like this one can be added to a gravestone to create a digital legacy!
Every day I like to take a few minutes and scan the homepages of some popular news websites. I almost always find a couple titles to click on that look interesting, funny or just plain bizarre. You know what I’m talking about…articles like “Man Plummets 30 Feet into Giant Tub of Apple Juice” or “Woman Pledges Eternal Love to Wild Pigeon.” Stories like these sound too weird to be true!
Well, in recent news, I’ve read a couple of weird, but true stories titled “Digital QR Codes Offer Interactive Cemetery Experience” and “The Ultimate Dead Spot? QR Codes on Headstones Offer a Digital Legacy.”
Really? Bar codes in cemeteries? Digital headstones? At first I thought, “No way” but here’s the scoop…
It turns out that headstones can now come equipped with embedded QR barcodes, giving cemetery visitors the ability to scan the gravestone with their smartphones and become instantly connected to websites, videos, photographs, etc. to learn more about the deceased.
From what I’ve read, funeral homes in Britain were among the first to embrace this new technology, but now the phenomenon is spreading to the US. There is a new company in Pennsylvania, for instance, that specializes in honoring the legacies of those who have passed away by attaching a 2-inch brass or silver square with a QR code that links directly to a website that honors the departed.
Strange, yes…but kind of cool, isn’t it? I’ve been to calling hours that have photo displays or slide shows of the deceased, but you can only reminisce over these displays during the time you are at the funeral home. Newspaper obituaries are only published for a day or two. Traditional headstones contain very little information about the deceased, as well. So, why not provide a “living legacy” at the gravesite? It is an interesting idea, to say the least. What do you think? I’d love to read your comments below!
Anyways, this example just goes to show that QR codes and other barcodes are everywhere these days. If you’re interested in learning more about QR codes, try checking this out. Or, if you’re really ambitious, you can even create your own QR Code here using L-Tron’s free barcode generator!