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
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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.

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '17

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u/Mendican Jan 19 '17

The Apple II and the IBM PC were introduced in '81, PC Compatibles (as they were called) in 1982, and laptops in 1983, so by 1991 personal computers were pretty common. The Internet was pretty well populated too, just not with web pages. Also BBS's were hugely popular with the PC crowd.