in accordance with the present invention , methods and apparatus to control the combustion of a burner are presented which overcome many of the problems of the prior art . one aspect of the invention comprises a burner control apparatus including a device for viewing light emitted by a flame from a burner , a device for optically transporting the viewed light into an optical processor , an optical processor for processing the optical spectrum into electrical signals , a signal processing for processing the electrical signals obtained from the optical spectrum , and a control device which accepts the electrical signals and produces an output acceptable to one or more oxidant or fuel flow control devices . the control device , which may be referred to as a &# 34 ; burner computer ,&# 34 ; functions to control the oxidant flow and / or the fuel flow to the burner . in a particularly preferred apparatus embodiment of the invention , a burner and the burner control apparatus are integrated into a single unit , which may be referred to as a &# 34 ; smart &# 34 ; burner .