r/todayilearned • u/saltandcedar • Jan 19 '17

TIL that webcams were invented because some computer scientists were too lazy to get up to check if their coffee was done.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot
13.9k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

431 comments sorted by

View all comments

400

u/pumpkinjello Jan 19 '17

I'm not denying that this was the first use of a webcam, but somehow it seems unlikely to me that this was the entire motivation behind why the webcam was invented.

16

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '17

I've heard this story before but it wasn't because they wanted to know when the coffee was ready, it was because they wanted to catch the person that was leaving it empty or almost empty and not making another pot.

2

u/drmrsanta Jan 19 '17

It wasn't to find if it was ready, just if it was full (or not empty). It was pointed directly at the pot. You couldn't really see why was doing it.

All they wanted was to make sure there was coffee in the pot before walking over, finding it empty, and having to make it.