Company Develops Interactive Link on Gravestones

Where's the weirdest place you can find technology? How about a graveyard?

A British company has come up with the "unique" idea of placing QR codes on gravestones. These codes, which can be scanned and accessed with smartphones, are usually used to provide extra content in ad and marketing campaigns. But in this case, the codes will give extra information about the dearly departed, like pictures, videos, and stories from friends and families.

Chester Pearce funeral directors said QR barcodes enable visitors to learn a lot more about the person buried beneath gravestones than the age, dates of birth and death and the odd biblical passage or literary quote usually written on them.

"It's about keeping people's memories alive in different ways," managing director Stephen Nimmo told Reuters.

"When you lose somebody, whether it be suddenly or ongoing, you can really struggle with things. Talking about them is very important, keeping their memory going is very important and this is just an add-on to that."

Am I the only one who finds this a little bit creepy? I don't know of a single person who would go up to a gravestone, say 'Wow this person seems interesting! Let's find out more about him!" then whip out their smartphone and start looking them up on the Internet. I understand that the intention of the technology is to share memories and what not, but this is almost like you're stalking a person after they're dead.

I love technology as much as the next person, but a QR code on a gravestone is just overkill.