My wife bought these **flameless candles**. They have 3 LEDs in them that have a seemingly random flicker to them. (Get bright, fade out a bit, fade in a bit etc...). Since there are three when you see it through wax it looks like a flame flickering. Very cool.

I though it would be a fun project to get back into electronics. I am a computer engineer but I fell into software - so while I understand concepts and how things work, I have no clue how to start this unless I got a pic chip or whatever people use now.

Any suggestions? The simpler(cheaper) the better. I just need some general ideas to get me pointed in the right direction. What kind of circuits should I be looking at or does this need to be done with some kind of controller like a PIC?