Have a few thoughts you'd like to share with your great-great-great-grandchildren a hundred years or so from now? The RosettaStone lets you communicate information about yourself at the grave to anyone who has a
wireless phone with Internet access. This granite device is expected to function indefinitely while withstanding up to 3,200 years of weathering.
For approximately $200, you can provide your descendents and other cemetery or mausoleum visitors with a photo and 1,000-plus words of text that
pops up on their smart phone screens after touching it to your RosettaStone (a trademark of Objecs LLC). The RF-activated microchip with its web link
hard-coded in digital memory is sealed within a futuristic-looking, palm-sized granite tablet that measures 2.4 inches by 4 inches and is only
three-tenths of an inch thick. The top surface features a custom array of six engraved symbols that you select to represent prominent aspects,
milestones, or associations in your life, such as marriage and parenthood, profession, military service, accomplishments, or hobbies, to name a few.
The tablet, which of course features your name and your unique identifier number engraved on the top surface as well, can be incorporated into the
grave marker (as shown in the photo) or passed along as a unique family heirloom.
We can't help but think the sleek appearance and the engraved icons will appeal to science fiction or archaeology enthusiasts.
The cemetery visitor with an NFC-enabled phone that can read RFID chips would tap his phone to the tablet to capture the web link data.
NFC-enabled smart phones (or other near field communication devices) can use RosettaStone's "touch-to-stone" technology to quickly access your life
story that would be organized by sections corresponding to each symbol's topic.
If you're not familiar with the technology, NFC generates a short-range electromagnetic field that, when it comes close to a radio frequency (RF)
sensitive microchip, causes it to activate and open its files. The programmed data on the chip is captured by the RF reader in the phone, and can be
viewed and saved. Unlike chip and reader systems used for security access or payment card transactions, the data from the RosettaStone would not be
encrypted.
In the absence of NFC connectivity, the unique ID number on the RosettaStone would enable the cemetery visitor to reference the person via a link
to the Internet. Indeed, as an added feature – and at no additional cost – your life story and photo become, in perpetuity, a part of carefully
protected archives that will be stored not only by Objecs LLC but also in a number of select locations beyond the Phoenix, Arizona-based manufacturer.
This would include libraries, historical societies, or genealogical service firms – the intent being that the records would be protected in several
locations for generations by interested parties. Objecs is committed to treating its data files as a crucial genealogical archive.
Each RosettaStone account is completely managed by the purchaser with respect to design and content. The contents of the associated life story
file can be rewritten or supplemented at any time as circumstances change or priorities shift until it is finalized.
Although the NFC connectivity technology has only begun to penetrate the U.S. market for wireless phones, that hasn't kept RosettaStone's maker
from being swamped by demand for the product. John Bottorff, owner and general manager of Objecs LLC, told us that transmitting RF signals through
granite was not the sticking point in developing his product. In fact, it was the technique for implanting an RFID microchip within granite with the
degree of permanence needed that was challenging, and it was perfected by a highly skilled, third-generation stone mason. Producing the RosettaStone
in its final form took several years, and was a process that began in 2006.
