[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)