If a client were to make regular payments to such an organization in the manner of life insurance so that once or twice a year during an entire lifetime a group would meet the client and make a CD of visual and audio material which could include photos and recordings originated by the client and directed interviews of the client by the professional group at each session. Over a lifetime a large number of CDs would accumulate which could be available to the family for comment and further addition. After the client's death, this material could be professionally edited and compressed to a few disks that could be more easily handled. Instead of a monolithic stone at the place of burial with a mere few facts which tell very little of the individual, a repository of the final disks could be provided so the the family could visit the place of burial and a small private theater would permit group view of an ancester speaking and telling personal history and opinions about personal life and personal points of view. Over time this material could become very valuable not only to the family but to historians who might be granted permission to see the material. Obviously a good deal of personal vanity would be involved which could make the business profitable for professional groups to offer the service, yet the technology is inexpensive enough to permit an average person to take advantage of it.

As suggested, I have broken this idea into two parts to get it into the site. Thanks for the suggestion

Great idea - a Virtual Mortuary! One could even have a prepaid service where this information could be posted on the web so that people could revisit their departed loved ones as needed. So, for a few hundred bucks you can assure that your great great great grandchildren could hear your voice! :-)

I am doubtful. First, it is not entirely novel. Anyone who wept through the final couple of minutes of "Philadelphia" (videos of the main character, then dead, as a child, with sweet piano sequence in background) knows what I am talking about.

Also, I cannot believe that people will have the gall to shoot movies of their beloved, explicitly in view of their death ... are they supposed to TELL them?

A professional, customized multimedia editing service is a different matter, and a good idea, but that's not necessarily for the dead. In fact, I've seen very moving films of adoption stories, which lasted for years before a child finally arrived.

You seem to have totally gotten the wrong end of the stick.The idea is to create a detailed biography of an individual which is then used as a permanant record after death. People already record much of their lives in photos and written autobiographies and it would be the person him or herself who would be happy to leave a permanant organized record behind of all the important events and thoughts of the life lived, in the spirit of the ancient pharaohs' tombs.

There was an item today in the news that someone had patented a tombstone with a flat video screen which would permit a message from the person buried. We are almost there.