QR tombstone
A grave monument made of natural stone with a QR code and which integrates a 2D barcode in its design is referred to as a QR tombstone , also QR tombstone , tombstone 2.0 . This means that more information about a deceased can be called up in the cemetery , i.e. directly at the place of burial , using mobile tagging . The barcode is scanned with a suitable program on the smartphone or tablet computer and connects the visitor to further information via the Internet.
A QR tombstone thus offers relatives an opportunity to design the memory of the deceased independently. This commemoration can be done by a URL forwarding to an individual mourning page on the Internet, but also by calling up personal photos and texts that are displayed on mobile devices .
development
Grave times and grave stones were built as early as the early history of mankind and still are in many cultures a visible sign of the Dead commemoration . Through the data of the deceased mentioned on it, through references to origin, occupation and activity, through symbols and sayings, tombstones became individual information carriers.
Due to the change in the current culture of remembrance, which is increasingly finding expression on the Internet (online cemeteries and online memorial sites), the idea arose to connect the actual grave site, the real burial site, with these “virtual” memorial rooms.
As early as 1999, a tombstone was erected in Sweden with a WWW address carved into it. This led to a mourning page for the deceased, which was drawn up by the relatives themselves and managed independently.
In 2008, for the first time in Japan, QR codes were affixed to tombstones in order to provide Internet-based information at the place of burial as a coded image of a web address .
In 2010, an NFC chip was presented in the USA that, attached to the tombstone, saved data or a photo of the deceased. However, this information was only available via a suitable NFC-enabled smartphone.
It was the rapid global development of the mobile Internet and the increasing spread of mobile devices such as smartphones that made it possible from 2011 in Germany to design a “digital tombstone” with a 2D barcode. The use of the QR code as the best-known variant of the barcode was then the basis for the design integration on the tombstone.
layout
In Germany, the design of gravestones is regulated in detail by the cemetery regulations of the communal or church authorities. These cemetery statutes specify the type and use of materials for tombstones, define maximum and minimum dimensions and thus guarantee that the “dignity of the cemetery” is preserved.
In accordance with these specifications, the Cologne sculptor and master stonemason Andreas Rosenkranz developed a process in 2011 to work deeply and relief-like QR codes directly into the natural stone using sandblasting technology.
This process made it possible to incorporate a 2D barcode into the design, as shown by the QR tombstone, which in 2012 - with an embedded QR code incorporated as a cross relief - was presented to the general public in a tombstone competition.
In the same year, the Cologne stonemason company "steinart" made the first QR tombstone, which was set up in a public cemetery in Germany. The integrated QR code of this tombstone refers to the Wikipedia entry of the deceased.
In the summer of 2012, a QR stele or QR pedestal was presented at a cemetery in Munich, which, placed separately on a grave area, complements an existing gravestone.
As a further design element, a QR code inlay made of natural stone was presented and awarded, which is used both on the tombstone and on a tombstone.
The creative integration of QR codes on gravestones was therefore to be seen as an independent design element. A ban by the cemetery operator was therefore not possible.
The German Association of Cities subsequently shared this view in its recommendations for action on handling the QR code on tombs, which were published on November 21, 2013. Quote: "In principle, the cemetery administration cannot prohibit the design integration of the QR code in the grave complex or the grave, since it can be seen as an independent or connecting element of the grave design."
Legal
In January 2014, the cemetery administration in Cologne attempted to prohibit the use of QR codes in the city cemeteries with a newly formulated statute.
This was justified by the fact that "due to the constant possibility of changing the stored information sources [...] the content to be conveyed in the special protective space cemetery (by the administration) could not be controlled".
The Cemetery and Urban Green Commission of the German Association of Cities (DST) had already formulated a pragmatic and legally unobjectionable solution to this reservation in November 2013: "The person authorized to use the grave [...] remains responsible for the content."
For example, the resolution proposed by the Cologne cemetery administration on the general ban on QR codes in the cemetery, with reference to the DST's current recommendation for action, was rejected by a majority by the Cologne City Council on March 27, 2014.
The formulations of the recommendations for action on handling the QR code on DST tombs have since been used by many cities and municipalities as a template for changes to the cemetery statutes and thus explicitly allow the design of 2D barcodes on the tombstone.
See also
Web links
- Recommended action for handling the QR code - German Association of Cities, November 2013 (PDF)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Major change in the culture of mourning through the Internet. epd, November 25, 2012.
- ↑ Gravestone with web address. In: Die Welt , August 20, 1999.
- ↑ Cell phones connect tombstones. In: Spiegel online. March 29, 2008.
- ↑ Gravestone sends radio signals from beyond. In: Die Welt , April 9, 2010.
- ↑ A stonemason from Cologne chisels QR codes in tombstones. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 29, 2012.
- ↑ Microchips and QR codes in the cemetery. NATURSTEIN journal, December 2011 (PDF).
- ↑ QR code on the tombstone - “What does tradition mean?” In: Frankfurter Rundschau , April 3, 2012.
- ↑ Buried and linked - cell phone codes on gravestones. In: Nürnberger Zeitung , May 5, 2012.
- ↑ Gravestones with QR codes lead to a digital biography. In: Deutsche-Handwerks-Zeitung , August 1, 2012.
- ↑ Sieger Tomb connects the grave with the Internet. Favorite selected at the TED Tomb. September 6, 2012.
- ↑ Links and information set in stone. In: Friedhofskultur - specialist journal for the cemetery system , October 29, 2012.
- ^ First QR tombstone - RTL news March 9, 2012 Video from RTL news, March 9, 2012.
- ^ The first QR pedestal stone in a cemetery in Munich. Video from n24 , May 26, 2012.
- ↑ QR code on tombstones: Grabmal-TED 2015. In: Friedhofskultur - specialist journal for the cemetery system. April 4, 2016.
- ↑ QR codes on tombstones ( memento of the original from April 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. zdf.de - news - today in Germany. November 1, 2016.
- ↑ Cologne cemeteries - no QR codes on graves. In: Kölner Stadtanzeiger , January 21, 2014.
- ↑ COLOGNE WANTS TO BAN THEM - No QR tombstones. In: BILD , January 25, 2014.
- ↑ QR codes allowed on Cologne's gravestones. EXPRESS, March 31, 2014.
- ↑ Gravestone 2.0: Nuremberg cemetery allows QR codes. In: Nürnberger Zeitung , August 15, 2014.
- ↑ Friedhof 2.0 soon also in Munich. In: Abendzeitung Munich , November 11, 2014.
- ↑ New cemetery statute in Stuttgart - QR code on tombstone possible. In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten , June 19, 2016.
