The are now cell-phone enabled memorial products called RosettaStones that enable cemetery visitors to access text and photos by touching a cell
phone against a cemetery headstone.
RosettStone products are available
as a palm-sized stone tablet or as a coin-sized stick-on polymer tag
called a Data Tag that adheres directly to a headstone. The text and
photo associated with each Data Tag is uploaded and managed by the
buyer to an online Data Archive site included with the purchase.
RosettaStones have their own microchips, leverage multiple cell phone
technologies allowing anyone with an Internet enabled cell phone to
access a tag's related information, but the most advanced of those
technologies is Near Field Communications-Radio Frequency
Identification (NFC-RFID), a globally emerging communications standard
soon to be available in the United States. This is the technology that allows a headstone to be touched by a cell phone and return information to the screen.
"The
NFC technology is impressive to see in action, but the benefit of
having a Data Tag on a headstone goes beyond the technology," said John Bottorff,
Objecs Founder and Principal Member. "Each tag has a unique ID number
that serves the same purpose as a database primary key."
According
to Bottorff, the existence of this ID number on a grave marker is good
for the industry as a whole and can be freely used by anyone including
web-based genealogy and memorial sites. "This unique ID number creates
a common reference between the physical world and the digital world in
ways that first and last name by itself can not," he notes.
Christopher Hill, Founder and CEO of FunernalResources.com,
states; "Our goal at FuneralResources.com is to make sure that both
families and Funeral Directors are constantly kept updated and aware of
the many new and cutting-edge technologies being introduced into the
funeral industry. We firmly believe that RosettaStone product group is
yet another exciting addition since it provides tremendous value to
those who are interested in long-term record archive and historical
reference."
Prices for the RFID data tags start at $42.99 and the tablet start prices are around $189. Normal delivery time is between 3 - 4 weeks. So if you are planning on dying be sure to order early.
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