Webcam history
Started in 1991, the first webcam, called the CoffeeCam, was pointed at the Trojan room coffee pot in the computer science department of Cambridge University. This webcam is now defunct, as it was finally switched off on August 22, 2001. The final image captured by the camera can still be viewed at the webcam's homepage.
The coffee machine has then been bought from Spiegel Online for 10.452,72 DM and repaired for free by Krups and can now be viewed now.
The oldest webcam still operating is FogCam at San Francisco State University, which has been running continuously since 1994.
As with many new technologies, webcams and webcam chat found early commercial adoption and aggressive technology advancement through use by the pornography industry. The adult industry required 'live' images and requested a Dutch developer to write a piece of software that could do this without requiring web browser plugins. This led to the birth of the 'live streaming webcam', which is still available in various forms today.
One of the most widely reported-on webcam sites was JenniCam, started in 1996, which allowed Internet users to constantly observe the life of its namesake, somewhat like reality TV series Big Brother, launched three years later. More recently, the website Justin.tv has shown a continuous video and audio stream from a mobile camera mounted on the head of the site's star.
Recently, Apple and other computer hardware manufactures began building webcams directly into laptop and desktop screens. This eliminates the need to use an external usb or firewire webcam. This has been branded the NiK-cam.
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