While it may not be a brick and mortar museum like other Halls of Fame, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers have created an online presence to honor some of the most influential consumer electronics of the past 50 plus years.

The IEEE has chosen a cross-section of electronic devices that have captured the attention and needs of our modern tech society. The choices bring back memories for all ages, starting with the Electrolert Fuzzbuster Radar Detector (1968), and, what could start debate, only includes the Microsoft XBox (2001) and the Atari 2600 (1977) from the gaming platform world.

“Over the past half century, countless consumer devices have charmed, muscled, or seduced their way into our lives. Among these gadgets, a select few can be called great. Some of them started a new product category, others dazzled with their engineering; still others fundamentally changed the way we worked or played. Or they simply made it hard for us to remember what life was like without them. A couple of them—the smartphone, the personal computer—did all of the above.

What they had in common was that they emerged from a moment of communal genius among electrical engineers, industrial designers, product visionaries, and others.” the site notes.

The site provides interesting insights into the devices’ development and their impact on society and technology, in general. The information provides historical context, as well as insights into their development and interesting tidbits about the device and the creators.

For example, the radar detector was created Dale T. Smith - not the first, but the most accurate and effective for the times. Smith had actually helped develop the radar guns police were using to create speed traps and after being pulled over in one and seeing how inaccurate the guns were performing decided to create his detector.

“Part of the impetus for Smith building his radar detector was having been stopped for speeding himself. “I’ll never forget it,” he told the New York Times News Service in 1978. “Three cops came in from one of our local speedtraps. I checked out their system. It was 15 miles per hour out of calibration, and they had written $280,000 worth of fines. The three of them operating it—they could barely write their names,” the page on his invention explains.

The information about Atari reflects how the electronic component industry and its growth has been the creative force for all the devices in the Hall of Fame.

“Atari, founded in 1972, was among the first video-game companies and had one of the best pedigrees in the industry. Cofounders Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, along with their engineering colleague Al Alcorn, had invented Pong, the first successful arcade game. After just a few years in business, they understood as well as anyone and better than most the critical limitation of the business: The electronics for each game were designed and built for that game alone. Had Atari continued on that path, hardware development would have become ruinously expensive. Further, the approach was completely impractical for the home market—Atari’s next target.

What was needed was general-purpose hardware. Meanwhile, over in the semiconductor industry, they had recently begun making the microprocessor, a sort of general-purpose calculating device that would fit the bill”.

Go visit, walk your fingers down memory lane and enjoy. With the information about each of the devices (just click the image of each device) you will come away with new knowledge and an appreciation of how electronic components have become the backbone of our modern society.