The world's first webcam, known as the Webcam, was invented by Cambridge University students in England as a result of their need for fresh coffee.
Fresh coffee was quickly running out, as there was only one pot of coffee in close proximity to the computer lab. To tackle this problem, college students Quentin Stafford-Fraser and Paul Jardetzky considered using a camera in 1991 that was constantly focused on the coffee pot.
A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in videotelephony, livestreaming and social media, and security. Webcams can be built-in computer hardware or peripheral devices, and are commonly connected to a device using USB or wireless protocols.
A camera constantly taking screenshots and connected to a computer... This camera was focused on the coffeepot. Jardetzky wrote a server program that had the server take a picture from the camera every three minutes. Stafford-Fraser developed a software that allowed members of the "Trojan Chamber Coffee Club" to work on their computers. Computers connecting to the server could access an icon-sized image of the coffee pot. The aforementioned camera was connected to the internet in 1993 and soon became the symbol of the World Wide Web. When this webcam was shut down in 2001, international media outlets broadcast the event live, and the Krups coffee pot the camera focused on was sold for a hefty price on eBay.
The longest-running webcam today is the one called Fogcam, which has been broadcasting from San Francisco State University since 1994. This camera was set up by university students Jeff Schwartz and Dan Wong to cover the daily life on the university campus and has been broadcasting from the front of the Civilization History building ever since.
Webcam technology gained popularity especially after the pornography industry showed interest in this area. This industry asked a Dutch developer to develop software that would allow live images to be broadcast without the need for any web plugin, and the result was a "live webcam".