Laser Tombstone Preserver

If you walk in old graveyards, the thing you notice most is that the words on the tombstones are illegible. The older the tombstone, the more faint they are. I think this is a shame, since those names and inscriptions are history, and while they are "engraved in stone", even stone deteriorates. Other old buildings or monuments share the same fate and it should be rectified. Furthermore, even new tombstones will, someday, be etched from memory and recognition.

I propose a device that will maintain the etched inscriptions on stone monuments, such as tombstones. It is composed of three components, namely, scanner, recognizer and etcher. The scanner uses modern 3d laser scanning techniques to detect the current inscription on the tombstone. It generates a complete digital 3d scan. This is then passed to the recognizer, in an attempt to use state-of-the-art deciphering tools to reconstruct the inscription. One can use more sophisticated sources of information, such as cross-referencing GPS of the tombstone, with historical records of people from that area, to have a better chance of finding the correct information. Finally, the etcher, which can be either a powerful laser, or any stone-etching device, emphasize the faint inscriptions so that it is more readable and more apparent. To sum up, the device is a portable one, which is passed over the tombstone and re-etches the inscription.

This device, once available, creates a new job, namely, Tombstone Preserver, which is a person going around the country, from one graveyard to the next, and using the device to highlight inscriptions. Furthermore, the deciphered scripts can then be uploaded to a cloud-based database for research and historical records.

I believe this project can revive a lot of lost history and has great personal value to many people around the world. The technology is available, all is needed is a person to make it. Interested?