RFID-activated retrieval system brings urns up for viewing

This one's a bit morbid, but the technology behind it all is actually quite interesting. Japan's own Nichiryoku has evidently created a unique urn retrieval system that enables family members with deceased loved ones to return to a reverent storage facility, swipe an RFID card, and watch their late mother / father / etc. emerge from the underground for viewing. Aside from saving space and money, this also provides mourning kin with a sense of security, as we're told that the urns are kept where even minor acts of God won't disturb them. Check out a demonstrative video just after the break.

[Via CScout]

[Richard @ Aug 18th 2008 10:55AM]

DIY hack coming soon: Rigging the machine to play "Monster Mash" when a card is swiped and the urn starts rising.

[Aldyn @ Aug 18th 2008 11:04AM]

i'd like to hear the 2001: a space odyssey theme song as it rises

[Flashpoint @ Aug 18th 2008 11:43AM]

Its like a Jukebox for Dead people.

[Samboini @ Aug 18th 2008 4:48PM]

Urn baby, urn, morbid inferno.

[fakeduffy @ Aug 18th 2008 11:07AM]

Creepiest. Bank. Ever.

[initialxy @ Aug 18th 2008 11:10AM]

next thing they are gonna do is online banking. just mount a webcam there!

[nDee @ Aug 18th 2008 12:14PM]

It's already there, the CCTV

[Lediur @ Aug 18th 2008 11:10AM]

Is it just me, or is there no video coming up?

[Johnny @ Aug 18th 2008 11:13AM]

Not just you.

[Lowest Ranked @ Aug 18th 2008 12:15PM]

No, no, no. Its not another video rental vending machine. No video is supposed to come up, its all about the urn coming up.

[phantomo.lui @ Aug 18th 2008 11:27AM]

65 Million Yen life time fee, that's US$600,000. Wow!

[maishado @ Aug 18th 2008 12:35PM]

Its more like a little over 6,000 dollars, which is still a rip considering the ocean is free

[Starnerf @ Aug 18th 2008 1:59PM]

Though the ocean is less likely to return the urn when you show up.

[BigD145 @ Aug 18th 2008 4:47PM]

An empty urn is just as good as a full one.

[meist3r @ Aug 18th 2008 11:28AM]

Awesome, that must be the coolest drug stash ever invented. Nobody would think of looking for my Weed there. I so want one.

[kr @ Aug 18th 2008 11:44AM]

They will when you capitalize it like that...

[paul34 @ Aug 18th 2008 12:57PM]

Good look retrieving it without alarming a bunch of bystanders. Or worse, if you proceed to consume what you just pulled out of the urn.

[meist3r @ Aug 18th 2008 1:44PM]

@kr: Sorry in my language important words such as nouns are usually spelled with a capital letter and since my love for MJ is international I somehow slipped in the non-english one. Anyhow.

What do you guys think these booth like walls are for? And I don't really think there'll be a velvet rope DMV like line of people that want to look at a "can-o-grandma". I think if you placed something in the urn you'd definitely be able to walk up to the urn, touch it, probably even remove the top and then leave.

This is designed for people to "spend time" with the remains of their relatives. Usually people pray or tell stories to graves and tombstones. I would assume that this sort of privacy is given here too. Afaik the Japanese are a cautious bunch when it comes to private spaces.

[M.Samba @ Aug 18th 2008 11:47AM]

wouldn't it be funny if it became sentient and started messing with people?

[Stem $ell @ Aug 18th 2008 11:59AM]

Bury bury interesting...

[Reader @ Aug 18th 2008 11:59AM]

This gives me a creepy sci-fi like view of the future for some reason.

[a ham sandwich @ Aug 18th 2008 12:09PM]

what would be an example of a minor act of god? making it rain?

[Lowest Ranked @ Aug 18th 2008 12:19PM]

Diarrhea, for example, is a minor act.

[paul34 @ Aug 18th 2008 12:58PM]

Unless you just ate Taco Bell, in which case that "minor act" becomes something much more.

[Rufus White @ Aug 18th 2008 1:09PM]

WoooOOOahhh! Did you see what GOD just did??!

[Lowest Ranked @ Aug 18th 2008 2:31PM]

Taco Bell Express?! How much faster can the process be? I can drive up, order a burrito, unwrap it, eat it and crap it back out in under 4 minutes.

You might as well just go home and toss the burrito in the toilet, and cut out the middle man.

[RDO @ Aug 18th 2008 12:19PM]

They would be the last people I would want to do business with. I hear their business has been kind of dead lately.

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

[Dustin @ Aug 18th 2008 12:55PM]

Don't forget to watch out for the stiff competition.

[Duke @ Aug 18th 2008 12:37PM]

While a good part of me thinks this is creepy, I then am struck by the fact that people do want to visit their loved ones and this isn't that crazy of an idea for giving them a feeling that they actually are visiting more than a blank wall with a name on it. Other than the price, I have to give them credit.

[Wwhat @ Aug 18th 2008 5:30PM]

I think I want my ashes to be scattered in the fab that makes RFID's

[Orinjz @ Aug 18th 2008 6:29PM]

I don't get the start of the video, what does SOL have to do with your dead relatives?

[bastuardo @ Aug 18th 2008 9:11PM]

Because THEY sure are S.O.L!

Ha! Ha!