Bar-coded gravestones: Be in touch with departed souls

London: Barcodes are being placed on the gravestones by funeral directors in the UK to allow visitors pay tributes to the departed and divulge details with the swipe of a mobile phone.

The Barcodes are being placed over the headstones to provide them a rather modern makeover and making them interactive for visitors.[caption id="attachment_446709" align="alignleft" width="380"] Remembering the departed. AP[/caption]

When scanned on a smartphone, the square codes, known as Quick Response or QR codes, launch a website which contains a biography of the deceased.

The page can include a profile of the person, photographs and videos of them and tributes from family and friends, the Daily Mail reported.

The first funeral director to provide the service in the UK is Chester Pearce, in Poole, Dorset.

Its managing director Stephen Nimmo said the QR codes are etched onto a small granite or metal square before being embedded or glued on to a gravestone.

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"I thought we could use technology to provide more information about people who have died to bring back the memories. People can make their websites as simple or as complicated as they like and add as much or as little information as they want," Nimmo said.

The expired person's loved ones can use a password to create and update the website and add more comments or memories as time goes by.

The idea enables visitors to graveyards to learn more about those buried there than just their name, age and date of birth, if they know the password, they can even add their own tributes.

The technology, however, doesn't come cheap, with the QR codes costing up to 300 pounds and an additional charge of 95 for the hosting and set-up of the website.

PTI