Web camera

A webcam is a hardware camera connected to a computer that allows anyone connected to the Internet to view either still pictures or motion video of a user or other object. The picture of the Logitech Webcam C270 is a good example of what a webcam may look. Today, most webcams are either embedded into the display with laptop computers or connected to the USB or FireWire port on the computer.

The first webcam is considered to be the X Coffee, also known as the Trojan Room coffee pot. The camera started in 1991 with the help of Quentin Stafford-Fraser and Paul Jardetzky and connected to the Internet in November of 1993 with the help amonitored a coffee pot outside the Trojan Room in the University of Cambridge, so people didn't have to make trips to the coffee pot when it didn't have any coffee. After being mentioned in the press, the website had over 150,000 people online watching the coffee pot. The webcam went offline August 22, 2001. The picture to the left is an example of how the X Coffee appeared online.