Phones for Urns: Hong Kong turns to virtual reality to honor ancestors

[coup]

[quote=Reuters]HONG KONG (Reuters) - A lack of space for cemeteries in crowded Hong Kong clashes with the age-old Chinese tradition of reverence for one’s ancestors.

But one entrepreneur uses virtual reality software to reconcile the two, allowing people to honor Confucian traditions of filial obligation in the territory where it can cost up to $130,000 to store the ashes of loved ones.

Anthony Yau’s firm, iVeneration.com, offers users the ability to create virtual headstones anywhere in an augmented reality landscape of Hong Kong, including such unlikely places as a downtown park.

Apart from the cost savings, Yau expects his business model to appeal to more eco-conscious young residents.

“The dead are taking so much more space than those who are still alive, as those buried use that piece of land for many years,” said Yau, as he manipulated his mobile telephone to correctly position a candle in front of a virtual headstone.

“For those who are still alive, they won’t stay on the same piece of land forever.”[/quote]

Rest of the article is here: [url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-cemetery-vr/phones-for-urns-hong-kong-turns-to-virtual-reality-to-honor-ancestors-idUSKBN1DL0YE]Source[/url]

There is a video in the source that really helps with understanding what is going on here. It's truly bizarre, we really are at the start of a new cyberpunk age.

[Omali]

Press F to pay respects.

What to do with the dead is going to be a serious concern as the population continues growing and available Land continues to shrink.

[Boilrig]

What happens if the service shuts down?

[Elspin]

[QUOTE=Boilrig;52912749]What happens if the service shuts down?[/QUOTE]

You could do this service totally offline in a variety of ways, most AR devices don't need a server to work. The advantages of it being a service would of course be getting updates to work on newer devices and dealing with things like the environment no longer being recognized due to construction/landscaping/etc but to some extent even stuff like that could be managed in a way that the user could help fix it.

[BBarnes005]

[QUOTE=Omali;52912726]Press F to pay respects.

What to do with the dead is going to be a serious concern as the population continues growing and available Land continues to shrink.[/QUOTE]

Cremation becoming more common is probably the most likely outcome, unless we decide to go the WH40k route and have cemetery worlds.