This article comes from the Public Game Research Institute (ID: yysaag), the author is hot, and Ai Faner is authorized to publish.

Susan Dennis has a camera in the living room. At 70, she lived under this camera for 20 years.

Every day, she will sit on the sofa and do some needlework, with a computer in front of her, and look at the Internet from time to time, or licking a cat, just like an ordinary retired old man.

But Susan knows that hundreds of netizens may be watching her through the camera.

Another World in the Free Webcam

▲ Susan has regular daily routines

On a free website called Opentopia, the camera in her living room has almost become the treasure of the town station. It has been visited 1.01 million times, leaving 492 pages of comments. At the peak, there were 8000. Many people watch at the same time.

As a privately-built small website, Opentopia’s only content is to automatically grab public camera content from the Internet through a simple algorithm and display it in categories. It went live as early as 2005.It was running. At that time, Microsoft was still developing the Vista system. Later, Twitch, which made the live broadcast industry famous, also appeared in it for 6 years.

Because Opentopia scans most of the surveillance cameras everywhere, it is generally in public places like parking lots. Content like Susan is very rare, and soon a group of netizens gathered in the comment area. Watching her life silently every day.

Another World in the Free Webcam

Of course, in addition to saying “I like her living room” in good faith, some people pointed out that this may infringe on her privacy. It was not long before the netizens found Susan’s contact information and told her this website. Things.

Susan’s reaction was particularly tolerant, and she even went to Opentopia’s comment area to join the discussion because “I am not a person with a lot of secrets!”

In fact, Susan has long been used to such a life. At the beginning of the century, the webcam was still a new gadget. She saw the way of erecting in a magazine, so she tried to install one to communicate with the distant mother.

Lasus later established this connection with his brother. He also installed a camera in his store so that he could communicate with each other. Under the camera, there was a piece of paper that said “Greeting to my sister in Seattle.”

For people like her who have worked at IBM and Microsoft for nearly 20 years, the advent of the Internet age is not a difficult thing to accept.

As early as 2002, she began to write a daily log on the Internet, until today, and there was almost no interruption during the period. On her personal website, she also listed her own information.

Another World in the Free Webcam

This may represent the spirit of the Internet in their hearts of people who are the first to “surf the Internet” – freedom, equality, and sharing.

Time passes, now we can hardly treat it asA guideline for online life. Opentopia, which included Susan’s camera, also confirmed this with its own development history.

At the height of Opentopia, there were thousands of cameras for viewing, and even a Russian hospital set up a lens in the operating room to allow viewers to see the doctors’ real-time process in real time. .

But as people’s privacy requirements gradually increase, the updated devices often come with encryption, and will not be displayed on the network as much as before. There are only a few hundred cameras available on Opentopia today, and they are basically in a state of disrepair.

This kind of network phenomenon that once existed in the “pre-live broadcast era” is slowly disappearing step by step, and people are forgotten. Although they still faithfully display the reality at the moment, they themselves have become left in the past. remains.

Their history comes from our desire to “understand the world in real time.”

Not long ago, the world’s oldest webcam “Fogcam” also announced that it will stop running at the end of the month, ending its 25-year live broadcast.

In 1994, two students from the University of San Francisco installed it on campus. At that time, it was necessary to upload information through the telephone line, and it was only possible to update the screen once a minute, but it still became a sensational topic in the scientific and technological community. Many people visited their website just to see what San Francisco looks like at the moment.

Another World in the Free Webcam

And if you go back up, the earlier attempt was from Cambridge University in the UK.

In 1993, computer scientists there were facing a small problem: the work needed to be supplemented with caffeine, but only the main laboratory had a coffee machine, so they often came from different laboratories on different floors. It was discovered that the coffee pot was empty and wasted time.

Therefore, they came up with a solution that fits their professional characteristics: they installed a small camera in front of the coffee machine and delivered 3 shots per minute. In this way, you only need to take a look at the screen and know if there is any coffee to drink now.

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▲Screen provided by “Coffee Camera”

Unexpectedly, when this camera was posted on the Internet, it became a topic that everyone talked about. Even many people would visit when they went to Cambridge University, just to visit the famous one. coffee pot.

But with the development of technology, it has become more and more difficult to maintain this camera. In the end, scientists turned it off in 2001. The last picture transmitted is the finger that pressed the “stop” button. It is worth mentioning that this famous coffee machine was later auctioned on eBay for a high price of £3,350.

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▲ The last moment before shutting down

With these two pioneers, webcams have become popular. The feeling of being “monitored” is uncomfortable, but as long as it can be controlled, it can in turn become a tool for people to satisfy their curiosity.

For example, you must be familiar with the photo below:

Another World in the Free Webcam

It is the cover of the Beatles album “Abby Road” released in 1969. The title and cover are taken from the recording studio Abbey Road.

Now, not only has it become a sacred place for fans to punch in, but the studio has also installed a camera here to see the path anytime, anywhere.

Another world in the free webcam

▲ Today’s Abby Road, when you cross the road, you will pay special attention to the posture

In China, the ancient form of webcam has almost disappeared, but it still has similar content. For example, the “iPanda” opened by the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base can be regarded as a spiritual successor. Today, after the fall of Panda TV, the authentic “Panda Live” is still broadcast 24 hours a day.

Another World in the Free Webcam

Of course, like the front and back of a coin, it can also be used to unscrupulously do evil.

This is the case with the “360 Drops Live” event that was raging in 2017: a large number of cameras were unauthorised to be posted on the web, including privacy-related content. Developers have pushed their responsibilities to the hackers who spread the cracking methods, but the malicious behind them obviously does not stop there.

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▲ At the time, people who sold crack resources were everywhere.

Although from a time perspective, webcams seem to be some kind of predecessor of live broadcast, but the real difference is actually the content – the webcam is primitive and rough, often presenting untouched reality; while live streaming is more or more Less ingredients with deliberate performances.

Human beings have a natural desire to understand the world. Whether it’s a webcam or a live webcast, it’s like an extension of our eyes, allowing us to break the boundaries of space and establish real-time connections with any corner of the world.

We think that is true.

After the raging waves and chaos in previous years, the webcast left a vague position in our lives, like a contact lens that we forgot to pick off.

It has been around for a long time, long time to “new thingsThe fanaticism and the capital faded together. But our curiosity, voyeurism and curiosity will not disappear, they are eternal in some sense.

The songs and dances of the show continued to be staged. People continued to eat full table food in front of the camera. 100,000 spectators continued to flock to the aunt’s live room, leaving their feelings… but maybe those from the “pre-live time” network The camera people can give us some inspiration with a rough sense of reality: through the blurred picture, we finally see the real people.

The most popular camera on Opentopia, from a bar in Spain: under a stalled fan, a waitress chats with visiting guests, and the wall behind them has just been refurbished a few days before.

Another World in the Free Webcam

You might think of it as a coincidence – this bar is on the edge of George Orwell Square in Barcelona, ​​the place where the country’s earliest surveillance cameras were installed.

References:

http://www.susandennis.com Susan’s personal website

http://www.opentopia.com Opentopia’s address

http://fogcam.org Fogcam’s website

https://www.abbeyroad.com/crossing Abby Road Live