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Man Has QR Code Etched on His Mother’s Grave

by Eric Limer | 3:00 pm, July 15th, 2011

Regardless of how you feel about it, virtual immortality is totally a thing and now, thanks to Israeli Yoav Medan who had a QR code etched onto his mothers tombstone, it may become an increasingly mobile thing. The code itself isn’t a sticker or plaque or any kind of affixed image, but rather is laser etched into the stone of the tombstone, the white bits remaining raised, the black bits being etched in as indentations. Apply some thick, black paste and boom, you’ve got yourself a decidedly neolithic QR code that is erosion resistant. Bet you never expected to see that noun-adjective pair. The code directs users to a website Yoav has dedicated to his mother’s memory, a site which he plans to expand in the future.

The QR code carver is apparently chomping at the bit to turn this into a business, but is this something that would really catch on? It’s certainly a cool idea, but if you spend some time thinking about the practical application, it breaks down a little. Anyone who is coming to visit a grave probably had a relationship with that person, right? In that case, if there is a web memorial, this visitor is probably already aware, correct? QR codes generally serve to connect strangers and passers-by with media, and when you think about it that way, the guy who would benefit most from a tombstone QR code is a guy who doesn’t know the deceased and isn’t aware of their web memorial. If thats the case, do you really want them to be seeing it? After all, unless the deceased is a celebrity, it means Joe Shmoe is out prowling random gravestones. Still, the same logic applies to tombstone etched images, and those remain popular enough. So, where do we draw the line between memorial and postmortem stalking? Apparently not at QR codes.

(via Techi)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001024198090 Scott Mccormick

     eventually somebody will develop a reader app for phones…great idea

  • Daniel Hoz

    You showed the picture wrong… Flip it the other way… :)

  • Michael Mol

    It’d be a real benefit for future genealogists. Include basic metadata about the person including name, timestamps and locations of birth and death, birth/death timestamps of parents, number of children. If there’s still room, names of children. If there’s still room, birth timestamps of children. If there’s still room, and if the data exists, death timestamps of children. If there’s still room, birth timestamps of grandchildren, death timestamps of grandchildren. (While this leads to a lot of redundant information, it would be very useful for mapping data onto existing trees with high confidence)

    (There’s still plenty of room)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z4CJFSWSF6NJQ2QO56FEBHKHJM K

    They probably wanted to highlight the code….but I agree – there are better ways to do that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1622410223 Bernadette Ellisha

    the obsession is getting out of hand


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