When creating digital memorial spaces, we often focus on software platforms and online services. But the hardware—the physical devices through which we access these sacred digital spaces—profoundly shapes our experience of remembrance. This comprehensive guide explores every type of device that can serve as a portal to digital memorial spaces.
Desktop and Laptop Computers
Desktop Computers
Desktop computers remain powerful tools for creating and maintaining elaborate digital memorials. They offer the processing power and screen real estate needed for complex memorial projects.
High-Performance Desktops: Gaming PCs like the ASUS ROG Gaming Desktop and workstations with dedicated graphics cards can handle VR content, 3D modeling, and video editing—essential for building immersive memorial experiences.
Budget-Friendly Options: The Dell Inspiron Desktop offers solid performance for creating photo collages, video tributes, and memorial websites without breaking the bank.
Specialty Computing: The Raspberry Pi presents intriguing possibilities for dedicated memorial displays. This compact device can power a perpetual digital shrine, running 24/7 with minimal electricity, displaying rotating photos, playing recorded messages, or streaming memorial content—all for under $100.
Laptop Computers
Laptops offer flexibility without sacrificing capability, allowing you to work on memorial content in different rooms, bring the device to family gatherings for collaborative reminiscence, or display memorial slideshows during services.
Premium Options: The MacBook Air provides excellent performance and portability for memorial creation.
Windows Alternatives: Windows laptops like the Lenovo IdeaPad or ASUS VivoBook offer more budget-conscious options.
Tablets and E-Readers
Standard Tablets
Tablets strike a beautiful balance between portability and screen size. They’re large enough for comfortable browsing of photo galleries and reading remembrance posts, yet portable enough to pass around during family gatherings. Their touchscreen interfaces feel more tactile and direct—you’re literally touching images of your loved ones.
Popular Options: iPads and Android tablets provide intuitive interfaces for memorial engagement.
E-Ink Tablets
E-ink tablets like the reMarkable or Kindle Scribe offer unique possibilities. Their paper-like displays reduce eye strain for extended reading of written tributes or digitized letters. They’re ideal for journaling grief, writing letters to the deceased, or reading memorial texts without the glare and distraction of backlit screens.
Smart Displays and Digital Frames
This category represents a shift from devices we actively use to devices that maintain ambient presence—constantly there, like a traditional altar.
Digital Photo Frames
Digital photo frames from companies like Aura and Nixplay are purpose-built for memorial use. Family members can upload photos remotely, creating a constantly refreshing tribute that requires no technical expertise from the person viewing it. For elderly family members or those uncomfortable with technology, a digital frame that updates automatically provides connection without complexity.
Smart Displays with Voice Control
Smart displays like Google Nest Hub and Amazon Echo Show integrate voice control, making them accessible for people with vision impairments or limited mobility. “Hey Google, show me photos of Dad” or “Alexa, play Mom’s favorite songs” transforms memorial engagement into conversation rather than navigation.
Smart Mirrors
Smart mirrors (DIY projects or commercial products like HiMirror) can display memorial content alongside daily routines—seeing a loved one’s photo while brushing your teeth, maintaining gentle daily connection rather than grief sequestered to special moments. Commercial smart mirrors are also available.
Simple Alternatives
Don’t overlook simpler devices: feature phones with internet capability, though limited, can access text-based memorial tributes. Portable media players like older iPod Touch devices, though discontinued, still function perfectly for playing memorial playlists or viewing photo slideshows.
Television and Projection Systems
Smart TVs
Smart TVs transform memorial viewing into a communal, ceremonial experience. During family gatherings, memorial slideshows on a large television create shared focus—everyone seeing the same images simultaneously, facilitating collective storytelling. Roku, Apple TV, and built-in smart TV features can stream memorial content from cloud services, YouTube memorial channels, or dedicated memorial platforms.
Projectors
Projectors offer even more immersive and ceremonial possibilities. Projecting memorial content onto a wall during a gathering creates scale and impact that smaller screens can’t match. Mini projectors like the Anker Nebula Capsule are portable enough to bring to different locations for memorial services or family events.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
VR Headsets
Virtual Reality headsets enable fully immersive memorial experiences. Walk through a reconstructed childhood home, stand in a virtual memorial garden, or attend a ceremony in a digital temple. VR creates presence and spatial memory in ways 2D screens cannot.
Available Headsets: Meta Quest 3, PlayStation VR2, and HTC Vive
AR Devices
Augmented reality devices like Microsoft HoloLens or Magic Leap, though expensive, overlay digital memorial content onto physical space. Imagine seeing a holographic representation of a loved one appear in your actual living room, or memorial tributes floating around a physical altar.
Even smartphones provide accessible AR through apps like Google ARCore and Apple ARKit—point your phone at a table and see a virtual memorial candle appear, anchored in real space.
Creating VR Content Without Headsets
You don’t need expensive VR hardware to create immersive experiences:
WebVR/WebXR Platforms: Mozilla Hubs and A-Frame allow creation of three-dimensional virtual environments viewable in standard web browsers.
3D Modeling Software: Blender (free), SketchUp, or Unity with WebGL export enables sophisticated memorial space design.
360-Degree Cameras: 360-degree cameras (or even smartphone panorama modes) can capture physical memorial spaces for virtual revisitation.
Budget VR Viewers: Google Cardboard-style viewers cost under $10 and transform any phone into a basic VR device.
Gaming Consoles
Gaming consoles can display memorial content through media apps, photo viewers, and streaming services. Their controllers provide familiar interfaces for older family members who’ve never used computers but have played video games.
Available Consoles: PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch
The Nintendo Switch offers portability plus TV connectivity—view memorial content handheld during quiet moments or project it on the family TV during gatherings. Some families even create memorial experiences within games themselves—Minecraft memorial builds, Animal Crossing memorial gardens, or custom levels in game creation tools.
Wearable Devices
Smartwatches
Smartwatches like Apple Watch and Android Wear devices enable memorial engagement during any moment. Set a daily reminder to view a photo of your loved one, receive memorial app notifications, or track grief journaling habits. Haptic feedback—a gentle tap on your wrist—can mark anniversaries or memorial moments with physical sensation.
Fitness Trackers
Fitness trackers might seem unrelated to memorials, but some families use them intentionally—running a distance in memory of someone, completing a challenge your loved one enjoyed, connecting physical movement to remembrance.
Public and Shared Access Devices
Not everyone has personal technology. Library public access terminals, community center computers, school computer labs, and internet café computers provide crucial access to digital memorials for people without home devices.
Libraries and Community Centers
Public libraries serve as the backbone of digital access for millions. Over 95% of library buildings offer public access computing, serving 14 million Americans who regularly use these computers. Libraries provide free high-speed internet, essential software, staff assistance, and digital literacy training. African Americans and Hispanics are twice as likely to use library computers, while families making less than $15,000 annually are two to three times more likely to rely on library computers than higher-income households.
Community computer centers in major cities (New York City operates over 450) offer similar services plus language access, assistive technologies, and sometimes digital media production tools including 3D printers.
Cemetery Memorial Kiosks
A growing trend brings digital access directly to gravesites. Cemetery memorial kiosks are dedicated stations where visitors can view digital tributes, leave virtual flowers or messages, watch memorial videos, and access wayfinding services. The Department of Veterans Affairs recently invested $12 million to modernize National Cemetery kiosk software.
Modern memorial kiosks feature weather-resistant enclosures, large touchscreens (22″ to 55″), QR code generation, and wheelchair-accessible heights. Visitors who scan QR codes to view memorial content on their phones engage three times more frequently than those who only use the stationary kiosk.
QR Code Memorial Plaques
QR code memorial plaques (like those from Our Tributes or Living Legacy) attach directly to headstones. These 2×2 inch stainless steel plaques link to free photo storage (typically 50-200 photos), unlimited embedded videos, biography sections, digital guestbooks, and social media integration. Anyone with a smartphone can scan the QR code at the grave to access the full digital memorial. The New York Times featured these in their 2024 Holiday Gift Guide.
Accessibility Hardware
Memorial technology must serve everyone, including people with disabilities.
Essential accessibility devices:
- Screen readers with braille displays: Braille Sense enables blind users to access text-based memorials
- Voice-controlled devices: Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri allow hands-free memorial interaction
- Gesture-control devices: Leap Motion and tablets with tactile feedback accommodate limited mobility
- High-contrast displays: Adjustable font sizes and display settings serve users with vision impairments
Emerging and Experimental Hardware
3D Printers
3D printers like the Creality Ender 3 or AnkerMake M5 can create physical memorial objects from digital designs—printed candles with the deceased’s photos, custom memorial plaques, lithophanes (backlit photo prints), or tactile memory boxes.
Holographic Displays
The Looking Glass Portrait and other 3D light field displays create volumetric images without headsets, allowing multiple people to view 3D memorial content simultaneously.
Haptic Devices
Haptic vests and advanced haptic devices like the Subpac tactile bass system add touch sensation to virtual memorial experiences—feel a heartbeat, a hug, or ambient presence.
Smart Appliances
Smart appliances with screens like smart refrigerators and smart bathroom scales might seem odd but could maintain daily memorial presence through brief moments of connection during everyday routines.
Choosing the Right Hardware
Consider Your Technical Comfort Level
The most sophisticated hardware is useless if you’re intimidated to use it. Start simple and expand as confidence grows.
Think About the Role of Ritual
Do you want constant ambient presence (smart display), dedicated contemplative sessions (VR headset), or flexible anywhere-access (smartphone)?
Account for Community and Family Dynamics
If memorial engagement involves multiple generations with varying technical skills, choose hardware that everyone can use, or combine different devices for different users.
Remember That Simpler Is Often More Sustainable
Complex setups break, require updates, and demand maintenance. A simple digital photo frame might serve longer and more reliably than an elaborate VR system.
Don’t Forget Redundancy
Back up memorial content across multiple devices and cloud services. Hardware fails; memories shouldn’t disappear with it.
Conclusion
The hardware we choose shapes not just accessibility but the nature of memorial experience itself. A traditional altar occupies physical space, demands tending, and creates separation between sacred and mundane. Digital memorials, depending on their hardware, can be equally distinct (a dedicated computer in a specific room) or radically integrated (constantly accessible on your phone).
In the end, the best hardware for any memorial is whatever enables the people who need it to access it easily, engage with it meaningfully, and return to it regularly. The goal is not technological sophistication but genuine connection—between the living and the dead, between individual memory and collective remembrance, between past and present in the ongoing story we tell about those we’ve loved and lost.