Headstones go interactive: QR codes will help remember loved ones (From Dorset Echo)

Headstones go interactive: QR codes will help remember loved ones

11:00am Friday 7th September 2012 in News By Paula Roberts

A POOLE funeral director has launched a revolutionary way for people to remember loved ones – interactive headstones.

Special QR codes (Quick Response codes) are being placed on gravestones so they can be scanned by a mobile phone, which then launches a biography of the deceased on a website.

The online page triggered by the small barcode-type squares can show a profile of the person, pictures and videos of them and tributes from family and friends.

Stephen Nimmo, managing director of Chester Pearce, said: “I came up with the idea after walking along President’s Row in Russia and realised I knew so much about the people buried beneath me.

“The idea is to provide a service that people can use to help them grieve. The key thing is not to be afraid.

“I am a very traditional funeral director but using this technology is a positive way to help remember people.”

One of the first customers to use the modern technology is widow Gill Tuttiett, who has had a QR code installed on the grave of late husband Timothy at St Mary's church in Lytchett Matravers, near Poole.

Mr Tuttiett, a former operations manager at Bournemouth Airport, died suddenly from heart failure last November aged 55.

Mrs Tuttiett said: “Tim was outward going and game for anything.

“He really liked new technology.”