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.