Let The Dead Speak: Put Video Screens On Their Tombstones
from the no,-seriously dept
A few years ago, video game company Acclaim came up with the idea of advertising their latest video game on cemetery tombstones. Obviously, this was a bit of a publicity stunt, but someone is now going a bit further with the idea of making better use of all that tombstone space and is trying to offer video screens for your tombstone. The idea is that sometime before you die, you can record various videos of yourself talking about whatever you want such as final messages to loved ones (though, the inventor suggests: “having the final say on a disagreement” making you wonder what’s been going on in his life lately). However, given Acclaim’s publicity stunt, I wonder if people could just sell advertising space on their video screen? These video screens would be interactive as well. The graveside visitor could click on the segment they wanted to watch. He even suggests hooking up the tombstone video screen to the internet, so the person who died could use one of those silly “after I die” email services to update his messages. Why not just put this on the web? Well, that’s no fun for people who (apparently) want to wander aimlessly through cemeteries listening to the last thoughts of random dead people. As for the business model, well that’s still a bit up in the air, but he actually suggests making the tombstones coin operated, so you have to plunk in a couple quarters to actually watch your loved one’s message. Either that, or the cemetery could rent out headphones (just like airplanes) for anyone who wants to listen in on the messages from beyond the grave.
Comments on “Let The Dead Speak: Put Video Screens On Their Tombstones”
Might succeed in Asia
Many Asian cities have cemetries on the roof patios of department stores, due to space shortages. The fees for a “proper” plot of land are astronomical. Combine this with the fact that many women in Asia hold a deep grudge for their in-laws, the ones who poured boiling water on them, etc. to “teach them manners” when they were newlywed. I bet a lot of such women would be happy to turn their mother-in-law’s grave into blinking ads for war games.
Re: Might succeed in Asia
Combine this with the fact that many women in Asia hold a deep grudge for their in-laws, the ones who poured boiling water on them,
Can you actually provide proof for the messages you post on TechDirt?
Re: Re: Might succeed in Asia
You never heard about dowry killings in India? Or the kind where they don’t kill her, but pour sulfuric acid on her face? It happens in East Asia too, behind the scenes. TV dramas allude to it. That part of the world is very secretive about their family problems; social workers do exist, and (in theory) are there to help with problems as such, but nobody wants anything to do with them, for fear that people will spread rumors that so-and-so is seeing a social worker. It’s why we’ve had so many violent crimes by children in Japan recently, because schools and families are either unable or unwilling to get referrals to social workers. In TV dramas, young brides get even when the mother-in-law is dying, because then she can pull out her gold teeth with a pair of pliers to help save funeral costs.
Asian women have this deep pent-up grudge, and I can spot the signs. White men don’t see it (or don’t want to see it), and mistake it for shyness.
Re: Re: Re: Might succeed in Asia
So Mike/Anonymous doesn’t accuse me of being a total racist, I know there are vicious white women out there too. This is the scariest woman I’ve seen in quite a while:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/US/Living/abandoned_baby_040708-1.html
Asian women may have the same heart as the one in the picture, but put on a facade of normality.
Video on Tombstones
When I was in Switzerland, several years ago I talked though a cemetary in which several of the tombstones had those pictures where if you move your head from left to right, the picture takes on some motion suggesting a very short 3-frame video. It was downright creepy.
Better alternative
If the display is run on windows, you could have it show the Blue Screen of Death. :}
Or how about put a URL on the tombstone? You can access the page via your cell phone (3G, WiFi, whatever).
Put a barcode on your tombstone and you don’t have to type in the URL (assuming your cell has a scanner).
Better yet, how about a holographic virtual tombstone? You can have your entire life pass before someone else’s eyes.
I hope nobody goes out an patents these ideas, I wouldn’t want to start a standards war in the graveyard.