Originally published at: The first webcam was invented in order to see if there was still coffee in the Cambridge break room | Boing Boing
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I now have a WiFi webcam to check on my bunnies while I’m traveling, to make sure they have food, water, and aren’t trying to murder each other. Not quite full circle, but still in the original spirit of checking on something remotely.
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I will hold that coffee has been responsible for most of the good things over the last century or more. And my personal major addiction has nothing to do with it! I merely do as my caffeine overlords command.
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Quentin Stafford-Fraser wrote software dubbed “XCoffee” to save his coworkers the disappointment of walking all the way to the break room to find an empty pot. Mother necessity does it again!
Why not: “Quentin Stafford-Fraser wrote software dubbed “XCoffee” to help his colleagues realise who the arsehole was who took the last cup of coffee and failed to refill the machine”?
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I remember this.
At the time, I recall it was described more mundane, like a technical, but stupid achievement. Someone found out how to post images from a digital camera (the amazing future tech that was just beginning to reach consumers the time) online automatically and it made news.
Only later did this become known as a “webcam.”
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It so happens that “Mother Necessity” was also the screen name of one of the countless people to find more lucrative uses for webcams in the ensuing decades.
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…and in the same vein (vain? vane?) the “first IoT” was a coke machine in the 1980s; relaying to a network of (Carnegie Mellon) computers whether it was empty and how long the coke cans have had to cool down since the machine was refilled.
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So this was the first internet-connected fridge, I guess.
(Vein, as in seam.)
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Reminds me of:
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Recreation:
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My webcam checks my 3D prints to avoid the dreaded bird’s nest (pic is not mine as the webcam helps me catch it before it goes that wrong).
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The resolution and bandwidth get ever better but the security of internet connected cameras remains the same.
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Some history in the Coke machine that was “internet enabled” at the University of Western Australia
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yeah 'cause heaven forbid should you have to make a new pot of coffee…
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And thanks to the work they did we now have things like
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If the pot is empty nobody drinks coffee again? Someone still has to go and make more coffee.
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