What's Happening
- Hardware creator Kevin Bates launched a $149 digital candle that uses a custom AI model to simulate a flickering flame, The Verge reports.
- The 10-inch device features 144 amber LEDs arranged in a 9-by-16 grid with adjustable brightness.
- An onboard Espressif ESP32-S3 chip runs a tiny neural network trained on footage of a real candle to generate the flame simulation on the fly.
Why It Matters
The device demonstrates how creators can apply machine learning to single-purpose novelty hardware. Running neural networks locally on low-power microcontrollers allows for dynamic, non-repeating physical effects without requiring cloud connectivity.
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