Controlling a Digital Camera Lens assembly - suggestions appreciated

[Alienbeing]

I have about 300 Olympus Digital Camera lense assemblies that were made for cameras such as Olympus D-460, D-510 and a few others.
These lenses were defective as their shutters were stuck. It was a very simple procedure to repair them.
I am considering using one of them to replace an existing fixed focal length lens on a small color video camera (CCD) Spy cam size tiny. Would like to add the ability to to control the zoom of the lense and add the ability to to have it auto focus.
Would this sound too much work for a PIC to do? Also I don't really don't understand the concept of how lenses autofocus. Is there some sensor on the digital cameras that do that. Are they still using ultrasonic sensors to measure distance to objects or are the using infrared pulses maybe?
Eventually if I get far enough into this I would like to add ethernet to the camera with built in webserver. I know I could probably buy a camera that already does all that but this is just going to be a learning experience kind of project.
I'm not asking for help with writing code. Just would like to know if anyone has ever attempted this sort of thing before and can offer some good advice on doing this. Also maybe what Pic I should 16F, 18F, etc.. would be the best suited to use.
The lenses have 2 small motors in them one to extend the lens out and for zoom, One to control the aperature size. A small selnoid for the shutter (not to be used). a few infrared sensors to tell microprocessor position of the lense (extended or retracted positions) and zoom full out or in. Some suggestions on how best to control the motors. PWM? and How maybe to get the lense to autofocus. If I am unable to get autofocus to work maybe manual focus with the use of buttons (momentary switches) input to a PIC. Later maybe control all this remotely from a built in webserver.

Thanks,
Alien