Pay as you Urn: Graves get Oyster style RFID chips in Japan

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Dying is an expensive business. No longer do you just grab the nearest incinerator or chuck a box in the ground, you’ve got burial plots, premium coffins and headstones to purchase. The expense caused by a death is almost equal to that of a marriage, and since the deceased can’t really appreciate the five piece band, shouldn’t you save your pennies for the living?

Designer Nichiryoku think so, and has created an electronic burial ground, which not only spares you the expense of a burial plot, but cuts down on space as well. Mourners visits a prayer area, swipe in their RFID cards and have the ashes of their loved ones ferried to them by an electronic system. It picks out their urn from thousands of others and moves it to a viewing spot. Now you’re free to commune/cry/ask where the money is for as long as you please, in relative comfort.

It’s an ingenious way of saving space and money, but can you really turn a profit by making mourning electronic? I’m not sure…

Watch the video below to see it in action.

[via C Scout Japan]

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Zara Rabinowicz

One thought on “Pay as you Urn: Graves get Oyster style RFID chips in Japan

  • There’s a graveyard round the corner from where i live in South London where a couple of the gravestones have LCD screens in them. The bereaved have recorded a short video of themselves, and one of them is an elderly woman singing the Lord’s Prayer. Which is pretty damn freaky.

    Dunno how it works but i guess it’s some sort of breaker switch that sets it off when you walk past.

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