The following excerpts are from an interesting story at the Fox News website about the high-tech Memory Medallions that can be attached to headstones – and read by smart phones. Very interesting!
WAYNESBURG, Pa. — The concept of barcodes on tombstones and
interactivity at the cemetery was considered too far-fetched when Glenn Toothman first traveled to funeral industry conferences 10 years ago.
“Nothing in the death-care business happens too quickly,” he said.
After years of waiting, technological developments have finally allowed Toothman to get to a point of “rebirth” for his Waynesburg company, the Memory Medallion.
…
A standard Memory Medallion remembrance package costs $225 and includes a barcode medallion for the grave site, a website of eight photos and 1,000-word story and a printed biography. Family members also can record a video about the deceased that plays on smart phones that scan the barcode, called a QR code.
…
The company is in talks with public memorials that honor those fallen on Sept. 11, 2001, and Memory Medallions has been used as a supplement to historical tours that stop in a cemetery.
The first year Memory Medallion saw about 50 sales. Last year the company recorded about 5,000, and Toothman expects business to grow about 200 percent in the coming years. His staff of seven workers also will grow in scale, he said.
Toothman, who resigned as Greene County’s district attorney in 2001 to focus on the Memory Medallion, expects 2011 to be the first year he’ll make more money in the new job than he did in his old one.
Read the full article at the August 9, 2010 FoxNews.com website.
