LCD tombstones' precursors were the bar-code-encrypted tombstones from Ishinokoe, a Japanese company, which could be scanned by visitors' cell phones to view pictures and videos of the deceased.
The award-winning Vidstone Serenity LCD memorial is the commercial manifestation of the Florida-based Vidstone company founder Sergio Aguirre's brilliant idea--to blend two traditional tribute forms, a movie and a tombstone monument, to form a new high-tech gadget with sentimental value.
The Vidstone Serenity Panel, a self-contained unit, works on solar power without chargers or wires. The "green" solar technology can play a 10-minute video footage six times on its fully charged lithium-ion battery. It works best with a south-facing installation. Full charge is acquired after four hours of direct sunlight exposure.
The flat waterproof 7-inch Liquid crystal display LCD touch screen with panel cover and microchip memory can be set on both vertical or slant walled hollow headstones as permanent tomb fixtures. These digital tombstones are inspired from holographic tombstones of the movie "Serenity."
The LCD screen housing is made of weather resilient shatterproof acrylic and tamperproof screws to resist vandals, thieves and the elements. The LCD panel's 3.5mm audio jack allows personalized listening of audio via headphones. Its images are 2-dimensional.
Customers have to approach cemeteries and funeral homes that are Vidstone service providers to purchase the panel. Consumers can create video tributes themselves with special Vidstone-provided software or get the service provider to create videos for them. The video tombstones require professional installation.
Video content changes can be made by paying additional fees. Subscription to the company's vandalism insurance plan makes consumers eligible for cost-free repair or replacement in case of vandal attacks.
Viewing the serenity panel's daedal multimedia is revisiting the dead, refreshing old memories, reliving poignant moments and reflecting on the lessons life offers. LCD tombstones can include tributes from living friends and relatives.
Death being an unexpected visitor, a person should make an allowance for this authentic memorial for future generation appreciation in his will. Pre-record a preachy video message or a candid confession of a peccadillo and entrust it to your lawyer for installation in your LCD tombstone after your death.
These talking tombstones can be used for pets' graves too.
Personalized LCD tombstones priced at $2000-6500 per unit are roughly double the cost of ordinary gravestones, and as of 2011, they are only found in extravagant mausoleums of the affluent.
In a conventional society where charitable donations, trust funds and benevolent acts are the hailed ways of remembering the dead, LCD tombstones are regarded as an unfavorable display of wealth and power in graveyards. However only as lavish as mammoth sized tombstone monuments constructed in past millenniums, these gizmos are appropriate death commemorations, in this technology rich age.