People are often amazed by how much impact technology has on their life but don’t often stop to think about the role it plays after death. Funeral directors are embracing emerging tech trends and offering more options to clients looking to pay tribute to loved ones who have recently passed.
Creating a celebration of life instead of merely an opportunity to mourn one’s passing requires funeral directors to become event planners in a sense and technology is helping them succeed by changing the format for funerals allowing for fun and personalization in every aspect from the service to the burial.
85% of families begin funeral planning online. The internet makes it easier to alert friends and family abroad of a person’s passing. Almost all funeral homes offer some sort of electronic guest book allowing people to access obituaries and acquire information about service times and dates as well as the ability to post a sympathetic comment. The next step up from an electronic guest book is a Legacy/Memorial website. This is a password protected sites to post photos or videos, share memories and offer condolences.
Video tributes and slideshows are also a very popular product that future minded funeral homes offer their clients. Using music, photos and videos to honor and remember loved ones is becoming a common practice in funeral services and offered by many funeral homes as an option for viewings. Another way technology is changing the funeral service itself by allowing funeral homes to stream video of memorial services live to the internet. Family and friends around the world can watch or participate even if they are unable to attend in person.
The ceremony isn’t the only thing evolving as emerging technology breaks ground in the funeral business. The way bodies are being treated after death is also changing as technology offers more options than just burial or burning. "We like to give all of our families various options," John McQueen, the president and CEO of Anderson-McQueen funeral home told LiveScience. "And we do have more and more families every year that are interested in cremation but also in reducing the carbon footprint that they leave behind.”
For environmentally conscious clients Anderson-McQueen offers a process called resomation also referred to as bio-cremation. Instead of burning the body, the tissue is completely dissolved using heated water and potassium hydroxide to liquefy the body. Afterwards just the bones are left behind to be ground into powder as a keepsake for the family, much like ashes after cremation. According to McQueen, “This is a more environmentally friendly process than flame-based cremation." Another environmentally friendly burial procedure new on the market is called promession. Basically it’s freeze drying. By immersing the corpse in liquid nitrogen the body turns to compost post burial.
Cyonics is an option that has been promoted since the 1960’s despite the ability to successfully deliver the end result. This process involves freezing the body to be reanimated later when technology discovers a way to do so safely. Though no one has woken from a cryogenic state outside of the movies, there are currently more than 200 people in cryonics storage in the U.S.
For an out-of-this world alternative, some folks have opted for a space burial. Celetis Memorial Spaceflights offers the postmortem flights ranging from low-orbit, to the moon, to deep space. Releasing ashes in space isn’t in everyone’s price range though so some options merely offer a ride in space instead of a release.
A very popular way to keep loved ones close by after they have sprung free from the mortal coil is to compact the carbon based body so tightly it turns into a diamond. LifeGems is one of the companies that offer a certified, high-quality stone created from the cremated ashes of loved ones as a unique memorial to their life. Grandma herself can become the next family heirloom to be handed down through the generations.
Even those who stick with a traditional burial can still cash in on some tech savvy trends when it comes to the monuments they choose to leave behind. Living headstones’ host QR codes that make monuments interactive by offering playback features linking to websites, playing music or listing life details about the person buried below it.
Another option, new to the market, is the CataCombo system which includes a coffin that has built-in speakers and a Spotify connection as well as a headstone, which featuring a 4G wireless connection, a 7-inch LCD screen to display the track being played, and a computer that processes everything. Playlists can be built before burial and loved ones can add music to open lists to serenade family members resting in eternal slumber.
Who knows what’s next; maybe a recorded message from the deceased displayed as a hologram welcoming people to the party or perhaps coffins with wifi. Whatever it is, one thing is clear, funerals will never be the same now that new tech has been introduced.
Image courtesy of Simon Howden at FreeDigitalPhotos.
Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.
Register or sign in today!