A project has recently come to my attention, but I have no idea where to start or even if it's possible. The idea revolves around programming a clock that is displayed in a digital photo frame. The user would then be able to put different pictures corresponding to different times inside a USB pen, for example, which would load as soon as you put the USB in.The project itself would be a really neat project - if it was just on a computer. I have no idea if what I'm talking about is even possible on a digital photo frame and if it is, what language would I use? If anyone can provide any input, it would be great. My current idea is to maybe have a small device at the back, SSD, that runs the program through a screen, completely bypassing standard digital photo frames, although I don't even know how to begin this. 
Programming for digital photo frames
programming languages;embedded systems
There are already dpf that display a clock or calendar, some even work in networks. Those are obviously capable of being programmed. Though you would in most cases have to do something similar to jailbraking an iphone or get in contact with the manufacturer of either the device or the chipset/microcontroller.To start you should find out what technologies are used in such frames. A bit googling (digital photo frame cpu) shows, that for example Samsung builts chips that are used in those devices. Example or some manufacturer hereNext thing is finding out more about those chipsets and how they are programmed. Most likely either C or some proprietary language. Though some may even run Linux.Just found this post on Stackoverflow where somebody had asked the same question. Seems there are some manufacturers who offer devices designed to be programmed.