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  • World?s First Webcam Was Finally Switched Off 25 Years Ago Today

    From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Monday, August 24, 2026 01:22:16
    The first time a camera was connected to a remote network was at the
    University of Cambridge in 1991. The purpose was -- of all things --
    to monitor the coffee pot in the common break area (it wasn?t even a
    room), so team members looking for a cuppa could check the liquid
    level before leaving their seats, to make sure they wouldn?t have to
    wait for a refill <https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/webcams/the-worlds-first-webcam-was-switched-off-25-years-ago-today-128x128-grayscale-feed-predated-the-world-wide-web-to-monitor-a-cambridge-coffee-pot>.

    The coffee monitoring system (aka ?XCoffee?) stayed operational for 10
    years.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Kurt Weiske@3:633/10 to Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOlivei on Thursday, August 27, 2026 22:18:32
    To: Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=
    Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= wrote to alt.folklore.computers <=-

    The first time a camera was connected to a remote network was at the University of Cambridge in 1991. The purpose was -- of all things --
    to monitor the coffee pot in the common break area (it wasnrCOt even a room), so team members looking for a cuppa could check the liquid
    level before leaving their seats, to make sure they wouldnrCOt have to wait for a refill

    Oh, weren't webcams all the rage back then -- I remember people with
    those little ball Logitech webcams at their desk, uploading still
    photos every couple of minutes.

    I gotta admit, Logitech webcams and mice back then did seem
    peak tech design. I'd trade my laser mouse for one of those old
    Logitech 3 button mice, if I could only find a serial port!

    kurt weiske | kweiske at realitycheckbbs dot org
    | http://realitycheckbbs.org
    | 1:218/700@fidonet






    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Win32 NewsLink 1.2
    * realitycheckBBS - Aptos, CA - telnet://realitycheckbbs.org

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Friday, August 28, 2026 06:31:34
    On Thu, 27 Aug 2026 22:18:32 -0700, Kurt Weiske wrote:

    On Mon, 24 Aug 2026 01:22:16 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

    The first time a camera was connected to a remote network was at
    the University of Cambridge in 1991.

    Oh, weren't webcams all the rage back then ...

    They were not called ?webcams? back then, because you couldn?t (yet)
    view live images over the web in 1991.

    A little bit later, the first Internet-based videoconferencing tool
    was introduced <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CU-SeeMe>.

    Then came QuickTime Conferencing <https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/QuickTime_Conferencing>.

    None of this was web-based. That came later.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Theo@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, August 29, 2026 18:05:59
    Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Thu, 27 Aug 2026 22:18:32 -0700, Kurt Weiske wrote:

    On Mon, 24 Aug 2026 01:22:16 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

    The first time a camera was connected to a remote network was at
    the University of Cambridge in 1991.

    Oh, weren't webcams all the rage back then ...

    They were not called ?webcams? back then, because you couldn?t (yet)
    view live images over the web in 1991.

    The web barely existed in 1991.

    There were 'video digitiser' cards, but they were mostly for what you'd call frame grabs today - they were too slow to capture live video, so you'd have
    to use a VCR to freezeframe a tape and let the slow ADC in the card capture
    it. They were too slow to grab live video, and there was nowhere to store
    it anyway.

    (at least in the personal computing space - broadcast TV had fancier
    equipment)

    The coffee pot was a good candidate as it was a) a non-changing live video frame, so you could capture it live - you didn't need to freezeframe it -
    and b) monochrome. The cheaper digitisers were designed for mono composite video, as from analogue security cameras.

    Theo

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, August 29, 2026 22:01:16
    On 29 Aug 2026 18:01:08 GMT, Stefan Ram spewed more AI slop:

    | The NewTek Video Toaster (released in December 1990) did not do
    | that. Instead of saving video to a disk, it acted as a real-time
    | analog/ digital hybrid broadcast switcher.

    Note also it was NTSC-only. There was no room in the Amiga hardware
    memory map for the slightly larger frame buffer needed for PAL.

    It was such a useful product, lots of customers in PAL-broadcast areas
    bought it anyway.

    | It wasn't until 1994 that NewTek solved the storage issue by
    | releasing the Video Toaster Flyer.

    Which basically sank without trace.

    The chatbots might make mistakes and misrepresent or invent facts.

    Which is why some have killfiled you already.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)