#Grave cameras offer virus-weary grievers virtual burial visits

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AFTR’s new line of cemetery cameras offers mourners virtual burial visits.
AFTR

These cemetery cameras aren’t intended for security — they offer the virus-weary living the ability to have “on-demand virtual burial visits” with the departed.

On Wednesday, tech company AFTR launched two weather-resistant, solar-powered cameras that grievers can attach to headstones or place in-ground at gravesites to digitally access their loved ones’ final resting places. Each model costs $499.

The “death care” tech features HD video, night vision, two-way audio and 24/7 streaming access to a gravesite through a mobile- and tablet-compatible app. The app is also intended to be used as a diary, where mourners can save videos, notes, music and photos.

The Brooklyn-based company’s founder and 12-year camera industry veteran, Joseph Schechter, was inspired to “bring burial visits into the digital age” by his father’s death, according to a press release.

The invention comes at a time when record numbers of people have been forced to hold funerals online due to the coronavirus pandemic making gatherings, even those to grieve, unsafe for the living.

“Some cemeteries are not letting people out of cars, or people have to wait for grave workers to complete their work, before they can visit,” Queens funeral director Irene Elcock told The Post in March. “It’s a terrifying time.”

Customers’ testimonies on the company’s website are not specific to COVID.

“I moved to New York for work right after my mother passed away and was devastated not to be able to see her resting place,” reads one review from a 58-year-old named Michael. “When the headstone went up I couldn’t be there in person, but I was able to stream it virtually and join my siblings in prayer. Today, I connect whenever I’m missing her, and I have got a bunch of her favorite Frank Sinatra songs saved in the app that bring me back to happier times with her.”