英國推出新型二維碼墓碑 掃描二維碼可獲死者信息

For centuries we have marked our dead with lifeless granite -- graves inscribed with names, dates, perhaps small inscriptions about the departed. But stones do not tell stories.
幾個世紀以來，我們都在用毫無生氣的花崗岩懷念逝者——刻着名字、生卒的墓碑，也許還附上一段銘文。然而石頭並不會講故事。

Now, a funeral home in Britain is attaching tiny digital codes to headstones, giving visitors the chance to see, hear, even experience the lives of the dead. No longer are graveyard visitors limited to letters and numbers etched into tombstones.
現在在英國，一家殯儀館開始在墓石上貼上數字條碼，讓來訪者可以有機會看到、聽到、甚至走進逝者的人生。去墓地的人可以接觸到的再也不僅僅是刻在碑石的字母和數字了。

The markers, known as Quick Response or QR codes, look like a combination of a barcode and Rorschach blot and are attached to the back corner of the stone. A smartphone with a QR reader can scan the code, launching websites or multimedia collections created by the family, providing an interactive life story to anyone standing over the grave.
這個數字條碼叫做二維碼，看起來就像是條形碼和羅夏墨跡的結合，被設置在碑石的角落裏。裝有QR讀取器的智能手機都可以掃描到，站在墓碑前的人就可以看到由逝者的親人提供的網頁或多媒體資料，互動分享人生故事。

（小編注：Rorschach blot 羅夏墨跡測驗，通過讓受試者解釋墨水點繪的圖形來分析判斷其性格。）

"It is about keeping the memory of someone alive," Stephen Nimmo, managing director of the funeral home Chester Pearce Associates, told ABC News." This man or woman really did something -- these are the people they knew, these are their family, this is where they went. You can learn a lot more about people than what you see on the stone."
“這是爲了保存生前的記憶。” 史蒂芬·尼莫是切斯特·皮爾斯協會殯儀館的總裁，他這樣告訴美國廣播公司記者：“這個人確實來過這個世界——這裏有他們結識的人，他們的親人，他們去過的地方。比起石頭上所能看到的那些，你可以更多地瞭解這個人。”

QR codes have been used in advertisements for years, and a handful of American funeral homes began attaching them to gravestones in early 2011. This appears to be the first time they have been placed on gravestones in the United Kingdom.
二維碼已經在廣告行業應用多年，2011年早些時候，幾個美國的殯儀館開始在墓碑上使用它，這也是二維碼首次使用在英國的墓碑上。

Gill Tuttiett, 53, lost her husband Tim to heart failure in November, and was Nimmo's first customer.
53歲的吉爾·塔蒂耶特是尼莫的第一個客戶，她的丈夫蒂姆11月的時候心力衰竭去世了。

"Tim was quite outward-going and game for anything," Tuttiett told the British media. "I think this is the way forward and Tim would have wanted that, and it's making a process that's hard possibly easier."
“蒂姆非常外向，喜歡各種新鮮事。” 塔蒂耶特告訴英國媒體，“我想這是個很前衛的方式，蒂姆會喜歡的，而且它讓這件傷痛的事變得容易一些。”

Nimmo launched the service, which costs about $600, two weeks ago. He said he has signed up 10 customers and hasn't encountered much resistance or anyone objecting to technology impinging on tradition. He also offers versions that can attach to benches, trees -- anywhere a family has chosen to mark their loved ones.
尼莫兩週前開始運行這項售價600美元的服務，他表示已經有10位顧客簽約了，並沒有遇到很大阻力，也沒有人反對說這項技術有礙傳統。他還提供在長條凳、樹上設置條碼的服務——人們可以選擇在任何地方留下他們親人的專屬二維碼。

"Sometimes, the British are reticent to doing anything new." he said. "This has so much more information than the headstone can ever offer."
“有的時候，英國人不大樂意去嘗試新鮮事物。” 尼莫說道，“二維碼墓碑包含了許多的信息，並不是墓石所能傳達的。”