[HN Gopher] Connectix QuickCam: The First Webcam ___________________________________________________________________ Connectix QuickCam: The First Webcam Author : mmastrac Score : 37 points Date : 2022-09-11 02:51 UTC (20 hours ago) (HTM) web link (computeradsfromthepast.substack.com) (TXT) w3m dump (computeradsfromthepast.substack.com) | kaladin-jasnah wrote: | Relevant video from The 8-Bit Guy: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxQjMlwDA8A | tpmx wrote: | That's an impressive range of products: | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectix | rcarmo wrote: | The QuickCam page is also impressive on its own: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuickCam | cm2187 wrote: | And its look is basically the logo used today for webcams, | which I hope is a bragging topic for its designers. | tpmx wrote: | From searching the web, it seems like the original one uses | the TI TC255 CCD image sensor (https://www.google.com/search? | q=Connectix+QuickCam+%22tc255%...): | | https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/93863.pdf | | _The TC255 is a frame-transfer charge-coupled device (CCD) | designed for use in B /W NTSC TV and special-purpose | applications where low cost and small size are desired. The | image-sensing area of the TC255 is configured in 243 lines | with 336 elements in each line._ | | It's a DIL through-hole package with just 8 pins. The output | is analog. I wonder how they implemented the A/D conversion | and the frame/line buffering. | threeseed wrote: | RAM Doubler. | | For Mac users it was one of the most incredible pieces of | software ever. | ocdtrekkie wrote: | Yeah, Connectix was such a cool company when I was growing up. | It feels like they launched so many possibilities for computers | that weren't really thought of at the time. The fact they even | emulated the PlayStation in a retail product is kind of | incredible. | teddyh wrote: | A few years later when the webcam market had exploded, I remember | always insisting on using Hauppauge WinTV cameras and capture | cards, since those were real TV signal (i.e. PAL or NTSC) video | cameras, and would guarantee a crisp TV resolution with usable TV | framerates, unlike most webcams which were often terrible | resolutions and/or atrocious framerates, and had strange | proprietary signals and/or connectors, coupled with strange | Windows-only drivers. The early USB cameras were before USB had | the necessary bandwitdh, too, so this advice was good for many | years. Hauppauge also had good Linux drivers. | johndoe0815 wrote: | The first one... a year after the IndyCam :) | bluedino wrote: | We had an SGI in middle school, and the only thing we ever did | with it was play with the Indy Cam and some morphing demo. | _sigh_ | Someone wrote: | It's not a webcam until you connect it to the web. | | The real first: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot | johndoe0815 wrote: | Right, I remember watching the "stream" over our 64 kbps link | at the university. | | But I think the IndyCam was the first one that was | commercially available as a computer accessory, though not | exactly affordable back then... still, my students today are | amazed to learn that color video conferencing and 3D graphics | were possibly almost 30 years ago on a machine that's much | slower than an original Raspberry Pi. | solardev wrote: | Apparently that's what the Netscape Fishcam used! | https://sites.google.com/a/montulli.org/about-fishcam/Home/h... | jacquesm wrote: | That's exactly what I used to pioneer streaming video to the | browser, and yes, it was first. But the Connectix when it did | appear was sold in far larger numbers. | ChuckNorris89 wrote: | The successor of that cam was used in American Pie for Jim to | stream his attempt of getting laid with Nadia. | | https://youtu.be/CQIRJIiEJt0?t=48 | mrweasel wrote: | For some reason nudes and porn from old crappy webcams where | always more interesting than anything else the internet has to | offer. | kyl3B3nzl3 wrote: | brianolson wrote: | I did a high school science fair project in computer vision on | one of these in 1996-1997. I'm still bitter that Logitech bought | them out and cancelled the Mac version of the product and to this | day I won't buy Logitech products. | latchkey wrote: | I setup a cu-see me server at my college with one of these | running on a A/UX Quadra 950 box. Let it go for a weekend and | came back to user reports of it being used for porn. I see a lot | of similar comments here about that. lol. | invalidator wrote: | Because it was a black and white camera, it only had a single IR | filter which was easy to remove. The bare silicon sensor, | unhindered by RGB color filters, had surprisingly good near-IR | performance. We rigged up a bunch of IR LEDs and had a pretty | good night vision webcam. | | I still have mine in the parts bin. Some day I should find a | parallel port and try using it again to see how terrible it | really was. :) | mixmastamyk wrote: | I talked the boss into a purchase order for one to explore "video | conferencing." | | Connected it to my Mac IIci and experimented with CU-SeeMe. Blew | my mind seeing folks in other countries, had only been using the | net for ~6 mos. Later took shots every minute or so. Also had a | web server running with cgi script that took a text input. You | could see if I was at my desk from the page and sent me a spoken | message. | | Mostly recived animal noises and profanity however. :-D | rcarmo wrote: | Wow. I remember plugging in the first one I got to a Mac IIfx, as | well as fiddling with the parallel port on PCs. | | Setting up NetMeeting over ISDN using a later model (and, later , | an Intel capture board, but I recall the VC QuickCam now, it was | the first USB model) was partly what got me into telco: | | https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2021/07/25/2030 | Dracophoenix wrote: | I'm surprised no one here has brought up this webcam's relation | to JenniCam (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Ringley) | and the birth of live-streaming as we know it. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-09-11 23:00 UTC)