If you have ever wondered about the origin of any of the devices that you use daily, you will surely find surprises, because as has happened many times, many inventions are born by accident or to meet very specific. the originals and were finally adapted. A curious example is found in how the webcam was invented.
To know the history of the first webcam, we have to go back to 1991, more precisely to the University of Cambridge. Nowadays, anyone can have their own coffee machine in any office for a few dollars, but more than 30 years ago, if someone wanted to drink coffee, they had to go to the cafeteria or to the corresponding department where the electrical machine was located. coffee machine, which includes a paper reservoir where ground coffee is placed and onto which drops of hot water fall.
First webcam in history
The invention of the first webcam is credited to James Quentin Stafford-Fraser and Paul Jardetzky. They were both research assistants at the University of Cambridge laboratory and coffee enthusiasts. When they wanted coffee, they had to go to the staff room located 60 meters from his officeand unfortunately for them, the coffee maker was almost always empty, so they were forced to make coffee and wait for it to be ready if they didn’t want to run out.
If you have used a coffee machine of this type, you will know that it takes time, time that you were not prepared to waste. The solution was to use a security camera from the manufacturer Philips focused on the coffee maker and, via the university network, connect to it using the program XCafé
This way, they always knew when there was coffee in the cafeteria so they could go get it and not have to make the trip in vain. As the Internet became popular and browsers added the ability to display images, Quentin modified the application to be available on the Internet
Fun facts
Due to the time difference with other countries, when it was daytime in Japan, it was nighttime in England, so there was no lighting in the room where the coffee maker was located. Quentin says he received several emails from users in this country asking if it was possible leaves a light on all night so they could see the coffee machine live, although it made no sense because it didn’t change status because there was no one in the facility who needed to consume coffee at dawn.
This coffee maker was live on the Internet, from this link, to the August 22, 2001, when the webcam stopped transmitting despite its popularity since it was visited daily by more than 2 million people from all corners of the world. The world’s most famous coffee maker ended up being auctioned off on eBay for £3,500 and was bought by German magazine Der Spiegel, who put it back into use without the first webcam that had been transmitting its operation over the Internet for 10 years, according to the BBC.
