A NEW smartphone app that "brings to life" the exhibits in Oxford University's Museum of the History of Science could be launched in September.

Staff at the university's IT development team made the 'Pocket Curator’ so that visitors could see how instruments in static displays were actually used.

It allows visitors to use their mobile phones to simulate the use of a sextant to determine their latitude, experiment with their own digital lodestone, recreate Marconi’s wireless demonstration of 1896 and convert between 12-hour and decimal time.

There is also audio and visual content to guide people around the exhibits and explain their history.

Writing online, the museum staff said: "Audio was broken into short stories focused on a single topic, allowing the user to dip into areas that interest them rather than listen to long, comprehensive recordings.

"Video content was presented in an animated style to distinguish it from the objects on display, pushing the user to look from the screen to the object in order to see the details explained.

"The prototype was well received by our user testing group who found that the engagement increased both their specific understanding of the scientific instruments featured in the app, and their general appreciation of the collections held by the museum.

"The success enabled us to leverage additional funding to take the iOS app from prototype to product, and develop an Android version."

Both versions are expected to be launched next month.