Graveyards with a twist: Tombstones with interactive screens

Tombstones have often been highly decorated or embellished to help people remember their loved ones, but now a company in Slovenia has taken graveyard remembrance into the digital age by introducing the I-ternal interactive tombstones.

According to Spring Wise - Bioenergija, the company behind the technology, has recently pioneered a tombstone that at first glance looks like any other, but after a few seconds senses the presence of a person viewing the grave and displays an interactive screen.

Image of an interactive Tombstone seen on the website

This screen can contain any kind of digital content, such as a film of the person’s life, text, or still pictures. When there is nobody to interact with the gravestone it will then simply display the deceased person’s names, birth and death date the same as any other traditional gravestone therefore saving energy.

Bioenergija has set up a weatherproof prototype of the tombstone in the Pobrezje cemetery based on the outskirts of Maribor in Slovenia. They are also investigating using a smartphone app to help increase the tombstones interactivity even more. It is thought the cost of a 48-inch screen tombstone will be in the range of USD 3,200.

We have recently seen a connected keepsake offering an online social tribute to celebrate the life of a deceased loved one, as well as an app to help bereaved families and friends monitor their grieving process. In the United States an Army-designed app helps visitors locate gravesite.

However, with more and more countries struggling to have the physical space for burials rather than cremations, and therefore the need for tombstones becoming less and less, how else will digital technology help us continue to interact with and remember the deceased in the future?