Hack your old point-and-shoot: Add features to Canon cameras with new firmware - [Resources_Hands On]

A DECADE IS A LONG TIME IN TECHNOLOGY-LONG ENOUGH for a technology to go from hot product to conspicuously obsolete to retro cool. In 2010, IEEE Spectrum's David Schneider wrote about a hack to supplant the firmware in Canon point-and-shoot cameras and add new features, such as motion detection. As it turns out, at the time point-and-shoot cameras were near their zenith of popularity. Since then, while compact stand-alone digital cameras are still being made, their sales have shrunk dramatically. As the smartphone camera became the most ubiquitous type of camera on the planet, point-and-shoot cameras found themselves relegated to the back of the closet.