What was the first webcam used to monitor?

The first webcam was used to monitor a coffee pot. In 1991, researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory pointed a camera at the Trojan Room coffee machine so colleagues could check whether coffee was available before walking across the building.

Quentin Stafford-Fraser wrote the client software, called XCoffee, while Paul Jardetzky created the server program. The original camera produced a small 128×128-pixel grayscale image and initially operated over the laboratory’s local network rather than the public Internet.

After web browsers gained the ability to display images in 1993, the camera was connected to the Internet through HTTP. Its live image became a celebrated example of the early Web, allowing people worldwide to watch the coffee pot. The machine remained online until 22 August 2001, when it was finally switched off after the laboratory moved.

A common mix-up is calling it the first Internet camera without qualification: it was first a local-network webcam and only later became Internet-accessible. Its purpose was practical, not entertainment—preventing wasted trips to an empty coffee machine.