eFinalDate: Launching in 10...9...8...

We're approaching the end of the beginning! That is, the initial development phase of our latest product, eFinalDate, is almost complete. That hyperlink will only go to our "basic functionality test" demo site for a few more days before it'll switch to our live site. Our Trello list grows short.

eFinalDate meets a niche need in the monument industry, although as we've dug into the project our vision of the potential applications has expanded, as it often does. In short, the initial use will be to simplify the job of adding text to an existing monument.

Monument without Belle's Final Date

In the monument industry, couples will often purchase a joint tombstone. When one half of the couple dies, their name and date of passing will be carved on the monument, along with the name of their partner. The second half of the couple may not pass away until many years later, however, so their date of passing will be left blank on the monument, as you see with "Belle" in the image above.

When they finally pass away, whichever monument maker is contracted to add their "final date" to the monument needs to determine the font family, font size, and position on the monument so it matches the existing text.

Previously, a cemetery employee would make a crayon rubbing (yes, remember those preschool chewtoys?) and snail-mail it to the monument company. It was a tedious, inaccurate process.

Old Fashion Crayon Rubbing

Using our new app, however, it's as simple as slapping one of our Magic Cards on the monument, taking a picture, and letting our vision processing algorithms do their thing. The image is straightened ("orthorectified"), scaled to life-size, and emailed straight to the monument designer. 10 seconds after the picture is taken, the designer is happily clicking away in the design software of their choice, be it Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, or Gerber Omega. Hey, presto.