There's a remote controller based on a hacked nintendo ds out there on the net. I'm using iPhone at the moment, but you should easily find it with Google.
Just looking now, and it appears it only allows you to fire the shutter.
Tearing apart a remote shutter release cable that you can press with your thumb - to make a remote shutter release you can press with your stylus seems a little odd.
But hey, it uses a hacked DS, and that's geek flavour of the month!
But it is also rather overengineered... To interface to the DS they use an AVR Microcontroller to do simple edge-detection on a signal line when this can be done using simple glue-logic for way less money, space and effort.
Q. How many computers does it take to close a switch
A. Well, two apparently.
Strikes me they could drop the DS completely, here's why...
With JUST the microcontroller + 2x16 backlit alphanumeric display + a few microswitches would get you a slim and self-contained shutter release that was smaller than the DS and which you could program with a finger for any situation WITHOUT a computer... Set up timelapsing, set up custom bursts, have fine bulb control, fine bulb control + custom timers for time-lapsing dark scenes such as animal burrows etc.
IE, a small, battery friendly, professional quality, digital shutter release.
Add a jack for a remote trip and you can photograph animals leaving a burrow, the device would use the preprogrammed AF time, burst number, burst interval, etc.
And, by pressing the switch manually you still have a regular shutter release... except that pressing the mode switch will show you the exposure counts AND double as a local clock.
No hacked DS in sight!
Now THAT would be an end user friendly bit of field kit to have. And because of the serial IO on the microcontroller, you would be able to extend that release to your netbook and place it under GUI control too, where it could companion with Eye-Fi using software designed to operate both together.
ooh, ooh ... and in the settings you could flick through various camera models making the digital shutter release pretty much universal, as long as you had the appropriate cable/adapter for your cameras remote shutter connector.
Ingredients :
1 x PIC, AVR, BASICStamp or some other cheap microcontroller of choice
1 x cheap 2x16 backlit (blue is cool) LCD module
5 x Microswitches (mode/set, up, down, focus and shutter)
1 x Slim ABS enclosure suitable for handheld remotes
1 x Jack socket for the SR cable
Optional:
1 x Jack for your own tripwire release (IR, Microswitch, reed switch, etc)
1 x serial connector for extending control to a netbook (and for flashing the microcontroller)
And you'd STILL be able to use this with a composite cable from the G1 to have your netbook fire off automatic shots on motion detection etc.
It sounds complicated, but it is actually pretty damned simple really. I've been playing with microcontrollers my whole life and they just lend themselves to LCD controllers, process control and sensing/switching jobs so well. Battery life is huge because they can be made to sleep until a timer event or button press wakes them to do a job.
-Gary
