几个世纪以来，我们都在用毫无生气的花岗岩怀念逝者——刻着名字、生卒的墓碑，也许还附上一段铭文。然而石头并不会讲故事。

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.

现在在英国，一家殡仪馆开始在墓石上贴上数字条码，让来访者可以有机会看到、听到、甚至走进逝者的人生。去墓地的人可以接触到的再也不仅仅是刻在碑石的字母和数字了。

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.

这个数字条码叫做二维码，看起来就像是条形码和罗夏墨迹的结合，被设置在碑石的角落里。装有QR读取器的智能手机都可以扫描到，站在墓碑前的人就可以看到由逝者的亲人提供的网页或多媒体资料，互动分享人生故事。

（小编注：Rorschach blot 罗夏墨迹测验，通过让受试者解释墨水点绘的图形来分析判断其性格。）

 

"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."

“这是为了保存生前的记忆。” 史蒂芬·尼莫是切斯特·皮尔斯协会殡仪馆的总裁，他这样告诉美国广播公司记者：“这个人确实来过这个世界——这里有他们结识的人，他们的亲人，他们去过的地方。比起石头上所能看到的那些，你可以更多地了解这个人。”

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.

二维码已经在广告行业应用多年，2011年早些时候，几个美国的殡仪馆开始在墓碑上使用它，这也是二维码使用在英国的墓碑上。

Gill Tuttiett, 53, lost her husband Tim to heart failure in November, and was Nimmo's first customer.

53岁的吉尔·塔蒂耶特是尼莫的个客户，她的丈夫蒂姆11月的时候心力衰竭去世了。

"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，喜欢各种新鲜事。” 塔蒂耶特告诉英国媒体，“我想这是个很前卫的方式，蒂姆会喜欢的，而且它让这件伤痛的事变得容易一些。”

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.

尼莫两周前开始运行这项售价600美元的服务，他表示已经有10位顾客签约了，并没有遇到很大阻力，也没有人反对说这项技术有碍传统。他还提供在长条凳、树上设置条码的服务——人们可以选择在任何地方留下他们亲人的专属二维码。

"Sometimes, the British are reticent to doing anything new." he said. "This has so much more information than the headstone can ever offer."

“有的时候，英国人不大乐意去尝试新鲜事物。” 尼莫说道，“二维码墓碑包含了许多的信息，并不是墓石所能传达的。”