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In 1991 researchers at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory pointed a camera at the coffee machine in the Trojan Room, so colleagues could check from their desks whether the pot was full. In 1993 the picture went onto the World Wide Web, making it one of the first webcams.

University of Cambridge, 1991

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Quentin Stafford-Fraser and Paul Jardetzky set it up so that nobody would make the trip to the coffee room only to find the pot empty. The camera took grey-scale pictures just 128 by 128 pixels, and at first they could be seen only on computers inside the laboratory's own network. In 1993 web browsers gained the ability to show pictures, and that November Daniel Gordon and Martyn Johnson put the camera on the World Wide Web. People around the world began watching a coffee pot in Cambridge, and it became one of the best-known sights of the early web. The camera was switched off on 22 August 2001, after the laboratory moved to a new building. The last coffee machine, a Krups, sold on eBay for £3,350; since 2016 it has been on permanent loan to the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum, a computer museum in Paderborn, Germany.

Türkçe oku
Cambridge Üniversitesi Bilgisayar Laboratuvarı'ndaki araştırmacılar 1991'de, Trojan Room denen odadaki kahve makinesine bir kamera çevirdi. Böylece meslektaşları, kahve kalmış mı diye masalarından bakabiliyordu. Görüntü 1993'te World Wide Web'e açıldı ve kamera ilk web kameralarından biri oldu.
Cambridge Üniversitesi, 1991

Quentin Stafford-Fraser ile Paul Jardetzky bu düzeneği, kimse kahve odasına kadar yürüyüp boş bir demlikle karşılaşmasın diye kurdu. Kamera yalnızca 128 x 128 piksellik gri tonlu görüntüler çekiyordu ve bu görüntüler ilk başta sadece laboratuvarın kendi ağındaki bilgisayarlardan izlenebiliyordu. 1993'te web tarayıcıları resim gösterebilir hâle geldi; aynı yılın kasım ayında Daniel Gordon ile Martyn Johnson kamerayı World Wide Web'e bağladı. Dünyanın dört bir yanından insanlar Cambridge'deki bir kahve makinesini izlemeye başladı ve kamera, ilk dönem web'in en tanınan köşelerinden biri oldu. Laboratuvar yeni binasına taşındıktan sonra kamera 22 Ağustos 2001'de kapatıldı. Son kahve makinesi olan Krups marka makine eBay'de 3.350 sterline satıldı. Makine 2016'dan beri Almanya'nın Paderborn kentindeki bilgisayar müzesi Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum'da süresiz ödünç olarak duruyor.

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Background reading: Trojan Room coffee pot
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