Skip to main content

World’s First Webcam Kept Watch on a Coffee Pot

The world’s first Internet webcam was invented not out of necessity but out of convenience.

In late 1991, about 15 or so researchers in the Systems Group at the University of Cambridge Computer Lab used to share a coffee machine located in the corridor outside the computer lab known as the Trojan Room. The coffee pot provided enough coffee to fill only a few mugs, and whenever a fresh pot was brewed, it emptied pretty quickly.

Some of the researchers worked in other parts of the building and had to navigate several flights of stairs to get to the coffee pot, often to find those closer at hand have beaten them to it. In the interests of fair play, some of the residents of the Trojan Room salvage a video camera, an old 680x0 VME-based computer, and a frame-grabber left over from other projects. They fixed the camera to a retort stand, pointed it at the coffee machine in the corridor, and ran the wires under the floor to the frame-grabber in the Trojan Room.

Trojan_Room_coffee_pot_xcoffee

The coffee pot, as displayed in XCoffee

A server program was quickly written to capture 128×128 grayscale images of the pot every few seconds at various resolutions. A client program enabled others to keep watch on the state of the coffee pot from their machines.

When web browsers gained the ability to display images in March 1993, it was clear this would be an easier way to make the picture available. The camera was connected to the Internet in November 1993 and became available not only to the researchers at the University of Cambridge but to any Internet user. The Trojan Room coffee pot grew into a popular landmark of the early web.

Trojan_Room_coffee_pot_xvcoffee

The last picture the webcam ever took, showing the server being switched off

On August 22, 2001, the camera was switched off when the computer department moved to their new premises. The pot, a German Krups model, was auctioned on eBay for £3,350 to the German website Spiegel Online.

After being refurbished by the employees of Krups free of charge, the pot has been switched on again in the editorial office of Spiegel Online in Hamburg's HafenCity to be admired from anywhere in the world. Once again you can watch the live cam of the coffee pot.

trojan-coffee-pot-now

The Trojan Room coffee pot today at Spiegel Online’s office on the 13th floor, overlooking the river Elbe.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

Related: What was the first image to be published on the Web?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How to Record CPU and Memory Usage Over Time in Windows?

Whenever the computer is lagging or some application is taking too long to respond, we usually fire up task manager and look under the Performance tab or under Processes to check on processor utilization or the amount of free memory available. The task manager is ideal for real-time analysis of CPU and memory utilization. It even displays a short history of CPU utilization in the form of a graph. You get a small time-window, about 30 seconds or so, depending on how large the viewing area is.

How to Schedule Changes to Your Facebook Page Cover Photo

Facebook’s current layout, the so called Timeline, features a prominent, large cover photo that some people are using in a lot of different creative ways. Timeline is also available for Facebook Pages that people can use to promote their website or business or event. Although you can change the cover photo as often as you like, it’s meant to be static – something which you design and leave it for at least a few weeks or months like a redesigned website. However, there are times when you may want to change the cover photo frequently and periodically to match event dates or some special promotion that you are running or plan to run. So, here is how you can do that.

Diagram 101: Different Types of Diagrams and When To Use Them

Diagrams are a great way to visualize information and convey meaning. The problem is that there’s too many different types of diagrams, so it can be hard to know which ones you should use in any given situation. To help you out, we’ve created this diagram that lays out the 7 most common types of diagrams and when they’re best used: