Here lies... now scan to find out the rest

Etching a brief epitaph in stone to sum up the life of a departed loved one may become a thing of the past with the introduction of hi-tech interactive headstones.

Increasingly, funeral companies across the globe are offering to add quick response (QR) codes to headstones which will link smartphones to online memorial pages where friends and family can remember their loved one through pictures, videos, and contributions from family members.

QR codes, a barcode that can be scanned with smartphones or QR scanners, allow users to pull up information on the internet and are frequently used in advertising and marketing campaigns and are now being brought into the world’s cemeteries.

While the service is not yet available in Ireland, it has found its way to our nearest neighbours across the Irish Sea.

Stephen Nimmo, managing director of Chester Pearce funeral directors in the southern English town of Poole, said QR barcodes allowed 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. When you lose somebody 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.”

Chester Pearce charges about £300 (€378) to create a code that can be placed on gravestones, benches, trees, or plaques, and is linked to a page on their QR Memories website.