Kevin Bates launches $149 AI-powered digital candle with LED flame simulation
Engineer Kevin Bates has released the Digital Candle, a $149 device that uses an Espressif ESP32-S3 chip running a custom AI model to simulate a flickering flame across a 9-by-16 grid of 144 amber LEDs. The flame pattern is generated live and never repeats, powered via USB-C, and the device is open source, letting owners repurpose it as a clock or for other simulations like Conway's Game of Life.