RFID tags enable grave tracking for eco-burials
Work & Lifestyle
Hippensteel Funeral Service and Crematory in Layfette, Indiana has introduced a tracking system enabling relatives to precisely locate the deceased in unmarked graves.
Relatives wanting to pay respects to loved ones in natural buried grounds are usually given coordinates to locate the deceased. Now in the US, the Hippensteel Funeral Service and Crematory has launched the first RFID tracking system designed to pinpoint the precise place of burial.
Hippensteel Funeral Service and Crematory in Layfette, Indiana is offering the transmitter disks and balls — provided by Memorial Markers — in the casket or grave of anyone buried or cremated at a 1.5 acre natural burial site called The Preserve. Hippensteel is the only company to have carried out eco-burials on the Preserve since 2008, and it is offering the new service free of charge as standard for all its burials on the site. A hand-held reader can be used to locate the marker disks or balls, which are roughly the size of a hockey puck. The readers can detect the markers up to a depth of five feet and will enable family members to find unmarked graves, or graves that have been damaged by natural disasters, weather conditions, or vandalism. It is also believed they will be used by staff when graves become buried in plants and grass.
Although the Daily Mail claims the system is based on GPS technology, the smart marker system in fact uses RF signals to locate the markers. For those in the industry, inspiration for more natural and eco-friendly burial services?
Spotted by: Smith Alan
7th February 2012
Email: staff@hippensteelfuneralhome.com
Website: www.hippensteelfuneralservice.com/naturalburial.php