By M. Kotch

Source: Flickr.com

Since the dawn of time, humans have used symbols (and later words) to memorialize the deceased. A name, dates and sentence or two were all that could be used to describe the person who lay beneath a headstone—until now.

Objecs.com, a software company located outside of Phoenix, Arizona, has designed RosettaStone: a product that combines centuries-old traditions with cutting edge technology to create a different kind of permanent memorial. “We wanted to find a digital way to contribute to the human record,” says John Bottorff, the founder and owner of Objecs.com. Heroes and celebrities have many records (obituaries, shrines) to remind the world of their great deeds. Bottorff wanted to afford the families of everyday heroes that same opportunity.

What it is RosettaStone?
The product itself is a tablet that’s about four inches long and two inches wide. It features a name and six “modern hieroglyphics” or symbols that can be chosen to represent someone’s life. Customers can choose from over 50 symbols (reflecting hobbies, interest as well as faiths) and the company welcomes inquiries about more unique or descriptive symbols.

What are the tablets made of?
The tablets are made of either granite, which the company claims has a shelf life of 3200 years, or travertine that is suited as a gift, family heirloom or for a green funeral that does not include a traditional burial or headstone. The latter lasts no more than 300 years outdoors.

How does it work?
The tablets works in two ways:
1.    With NFC (near field communications) enabled phones: once an NFC enabled device is swiped near a RosettaStone tablet, a browser is launched that will bring up the deceased’s information.
2.    Manually: If the device/phone is not NFC enabled, the permanent URL is typed into the browser and the same information comes up.
As of right now, U.S. phones are not NFC enabled. There is speculation, however, that upcoming products (such as the iPhone 4G and future iPads) will be.

What information does the tablet access? What about multimedia?
The RosettaStone tablet itself includes the person’s name and six symbols. The URL the tablet activates includes a picture and up to 1000 words. As of right now no audio or video files are included in the archive, though the company is working on including audio files in the future.

Where is the information stored?
An individual record becomes permanent after about two months (meaning that you only have a short window to edit or change the information). Unlike with a memorial page (such as with Facebook), should Objecs.com no longer exist the information still will. That’s because each memorial is seeded into a stream of non-profit archives including the Alexandria Archive and the Internet Archive.

How much does it cost?
The granite tablet costs $225. The travertine costs $205.

How long does it take to produce?
Each individual tablet takes about four weeks to manufacture and the company recommends that it be inset into the gravestone (in collaboration with the funeral director or manufacturer). The tablet can also be adhered to an existing gravestone.

For more information, visit http://www.personalrosettastone.com

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 4th, 2010 at 6:46 am and is filed under Planning a funeral. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.