Tombstone engraving company Ryoshin Sekizai has released an AR called Suma Tomb that places the image of a dead person at a ‘virtual gravesite’.
When one points their phone with the app open at the ‘virtual grave’, a 2D image of the dead person pops up at the geo-locked site, which can be anywhere of your choice and not just a graveyard.
The image can also come with a message from the deceased person.
In a promotional image, an elderly couple say: “Take care of yourself. We’re always watching over you.”
Yoshiyuki Katori, president of Ryoshin Sekizai, said he was inspired to make the app following the death of his uncle.
He told The Japan Times: “I wondered how comforting it would be if he could talk to me at his grave, with messages like ‘How are you doing?’ and ‘Hang in there’.”
The future possibilities that will come from AR seem endless.
Sam Jackson, Digital Creative at Burberry, told Express.co.uk: “The tools today are basic in comparison to what we will be able to do – to gain users trust in a new technology, there has to be mass appeal. This will come from two avenues.
“Updates in hardware – Taking AR out of the phone into a more seamless environment. Imagine the Augmenting glasses lens, that fit into your styling pair of frames, able to access all of the augmenting capabilities that a phone can do now, and more – or even contact lenses that augment directly over your eyes.
“Updates in software – Imagine being able to have large scale live events or music gigs held within your living room, or geo-tagging artwork to places around your home town that can’t be seen without a device. Facebook and Snapchat are experimenting now, but haven’t opened it up to the public yet.
“Eventually even being able to have feature length movies play out on the table in front of you!”