The Trojan Room coffee pot was the inspiration for the world's first webcam. The coffee pot was located in the Trojan Room, within the old Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge. The webcam was created to help people working in other parts of the building avoid pointless trips to the coffee room by providing a live 128x128 grayscale picture of the state of the coffee pot.^[1][2] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A Creative webcam A web camera (or webcam, real camera) is a real-time camera (usually, though not always, a video camera) whose images can be accessed using the World Wide Web, instant messaging, or a PC video calling application. ... The William Gates Building, which currently houses the Computer Laboratory. ... The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... In computing, a grayscale or greyscale digital image is an image in which the value of each pixel is a single sample. ...

The camera was installed on a local network in 1991 using a video capture card on an Acorn Archimedes. Employing the X Window System protocol, Quentin Stafford-Fraser wrote the client software and Paul Jardetzky wrote the server. 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 by Daniel Gordon and Martyn Johnson. It therefore became visible to all Internet users and grew into a popular landmark of the early web. Local area network scheme A local area network is a computer network covering a small geographic area, like a home, office, or group of buildings. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... KDE 3. ... James Quentin Stafford-Fraser was instrumental in the creation of the Trojan room coffee pot: the first webcam. ... Paul Jardetzky was instrumental in the creation of the Trojan room coffee pot. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Daniel Gordon is a British documentary film director best known for a series of documentaries from North Korea. ...

The coffee pot computer being switched off

At 0954 UTC on 22 August 2001 the camera was finally switched off and the pot (actually the fourth or fifth seen on-line) was auctioned on eBay for £3,350 to Spiegel Online. Coverage of the event included front page mentions in The Times and The Washington Post, as well as articles in The Guardian and Wired.^[3] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... August 22 is the 234th day of the year (235th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... eBay headquarters in San Jose eBay North First Street satellite office campus (home to PayPal) eBay Inc. ... ISO 4217 Code GBP User(s) United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies Inflation 3. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ... The Washington Post is the largest newspaper in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

After being repaired by german employees of Krups free of charge the pot has been switched on again in the editorial office of Spiegel Online and can be visited online again. Krups manufactures several espresso makers, including the Vivo F880, pictured here. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Other mentions

• On a list of "400 differences" in Visual Studio 2005, "difference #73" (first row, third column in image link section) shows 2 men watching a camera feed of a coffee maker (which is actually in the same room). This is supposed to show increased efficiency as demonstrated by not having to check the coffee maker's progress.^[4]
• The coffee pot is spoofed in the video game Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. In one mission, the player can cause distraction by destroying a "coffee camera" in the kitchen.

Visual Studio 2005 is the latest development suite from Microsoft. ... 47 disguised. ...

References

1. ^ Daniel Gordon, Martyn Johnson. The Trojan Room Coffee Machine. Retrieved on 2006-10-26.
2. ^ Quentin Stafford-Fraser. Trojan Room Coffee Pot resources. Retrieved on 2006-10-26.
3. ^ Quentin Stafford-Fraser. Blog post listing media coverage of the shutdown. Retrieved on 2006-10-26.
4. ^ Microsoft. Visual Studio 2005: 400 Differences. Retrieved on 2006-10-26.

Daniel Gordon is a British documentary film director best known for a series of documentaries from North Korea. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 66 days remaining. ... James Quentin Stafford-Fraser was instrumental in the creation of the Trojan room coffee pot: the first webcam. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 66 days remaining. ... James Quentin Stafford-Fraser was instrumental in the creation of the Trojan room coffee pot: the first webcam. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 66 days remaining. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 66 days remaining. ...

Further reading

• The Life and Times of the First Web Cam: When convenience was the mother of invention, Communications of the ACM, Vol.44, No.7 pp. 25-26, July 2001
• Internet Archive of the site