Headstone scanner that digitizes cemetery records into databases

Margaret is 89 years old. She's the only living person who remembers where her mother was laid to rest. Somewhere in Ohio — a cemetery near Cleveland, possibly Akron. She made one visit back in 1987 and never returned. Each passing year erodes the memory a little further. Her grandchildren have combed through Ancestry without success. FindAGrave turned up a grainy photograph from 2009, but there's no plot number attached. The cemetery office goes unanswered. Once Margaret passes, that connection disappears forever. Millions of families are fighting against the same ticking clock. Stone Search transforms grave markers into queryable information. Snap a photo and upload it. Artificial intelligence pulls out the name, date of birth, date of death, and any carved inscriptions. GPS coordinates pin the precise burial location. Relatives type in a name and locate the grave within seconds. Cemetery administrators receive a fully digital inventory without needing to bring on extra staff. Computer vision has finally reached the point where it can decipher a century's worth of erosion and weathering. The headstones were always standing there. Now they have a voice. For the MVP, leverage computer vision APIs capable of interpreting worn and degraded text. Construct a searchable database with filters for name, date, and geographic location. Launch with three nearby cemeteries. Bring in volunteers through genealogy communities — they'll digitize their local burial grounds in exchange for complimentary access. If necessary, walk the grounds yourself and photograph every single row. Validate the product with genealogy enthusiasts ready to pay $20/month for early access. Cemeteries would pay $500-2,000 per year for digitization and management capabilities. Individual families pay $10-30/month for ancestry research tools. The genealogy industry is closing in on $15 billion, yet cemetery records remain stubbornly paper-based. Most graveyards are run by overworked volunteers with no technical resources. You step in as their outsourced technology partner. After proving the operational model works, expand by licensing your platform to regional cemetery associations and building integrations with Ancestry.com's 3+ million subscribers. The dataset appreciates in value with every addition — each headstone becomes a connection point in an ever-expanding family tree network.

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