World's first webcam - the Trojan Room coffee pot

The Trojan Room coffee pot was the inspiration for the world's first webcam. The coffee pot was located in the corridor just outside the so-called Trojan Room within the old Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge.

The webcam was created to help people working in other parts of the building avoid pointless trips to the coffee room by providing, on the user's desktop computer, a live 128×128 greyscale picture of the state of the coffee pot.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot