LavaRnd: A Open Source Project for Truly Random Numbers

Phil Windley writes "Truly random numbers are crucial to good encryption. Most people have heard of Silicon Graphic's use of Lava Lamps to generate random numbers. There were some problems: it required special SGI hardware and software along with six lava lamps, and the solution wasn't portable. But the biggest drawback was that SGI patented the idea so it wasn't freely available. Now, some of the scientists behind the SGI random number system have create LavaRnd, an open source project for creating truly random numbers using inexpensive cameras, open source code, and inexpensive hardware. The system uses a saturated CCD in a light-tight can as a chaotic source to produce the seed. Software processes the result into truly random numbers in a variety of formats. The result is a random number that is crytographically sound, ranking at the top of its class in the NIST 800-22 Billion bit test. Its even portable, so the truly paranoid can take it with them when they travel."

Comments

Study Chaos

[tshak]

Nothing is truly random about a lava lamp, or even the fractals on a leaf. "Randomness" as we understand it has always been about complex order and large numbers. Meaning, it's too complex for us to see the pattern and the statistical possibility of numbers occuring in a measurable pattern over time is extremely low.

Re:Bizarre sequences of random numbers

[Ed Avis]

A number is not 'random'. There is no test you can apply to determine that 25 is random, while 44 is not. Randomness is not a property of individual numbers, it is a property of the number generator or source.

So when people say 'a random number' they really mean 'a number drawn from a random source'.

You're talking about Kolmogorov complexity, I think - the complexity of some data is the length of its shortest description. But even there you have to agree what language the description will be in. You could define a language where 18282822 is represented by the symbol 'A' and any other number is represented by itself.