Hi-tech tombstones in Japan let mourners link to images, videos of deceased

The tombstones are being sold by stone processing company Ishinokoe. Behind doors on the tombstone that can be locked is a QR code -- a square code read by mobile phones that can link to Web addresses. Grave visitors can use the code to access images and photographs of the person while they were alive.

KOFU -- A gravestone manufacturer here is helping bereaved families remember their loved ones with a touch of technology -- mobile phone QR codes on tombstones that link to photographs and video clips of the deceased.

"Tombstones change with the ages," said Ishinokoe president Yoshitsugu Fukazawa. "If my grandfather who started the company could see this, he'd probably be really surprised."

The QR codes can also be added to existing graves, for a price of about 200,000 yen.

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(Mainichi Japan) May 11, 2008