Museum of lost interactions a web sensation

A collection of lost technological devices from the past `discovered' by students at the University of Dundee has become an internet sensation as people all over the world log in to explore the `Museum of Lost Interactions'.

Launched in December last year by the Interaction Archaeologists of Interactive Media Design at the University of Dundee, the `museum' contains such innovative devices as the 1950s 'Zenith Radio Hat' and the 1920s Acoustograph, a primitive music downloading tool.

Other items in the collection include such diverse wonders as the Victorian 4-track sampler and the portable Morse code device, hailed as the earliest precursor to the mobile phone.

The museum's website - at www.idl.dundee.ac.uk/moli/index.php - has attracted the attention of some of the internet's leading technology blogs, from where interest has spread even further, to the point where Google now links 25,000 links to the site.

"The interest in this project has been phenomenal and we are delighted that so many people are now logging on to discover our collection," said Shaun McWhinnie, one of the intrepid 'archaeologists' from the University's Interactive Media Design course, who has helped put the exhibition together.

"These are amazing artefacts which offer a thought provoking reflection on the ubiquitous technologies of our present society, and show how such devices would have looked in the pre-digital world."