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Monday, May 12, 2014

Image Sensor as Quantum Random Number Generator

Medium.com: A group of researchers from Geneva University, Switzerland, proposes to use image sensor as a high quality quantum random number generator, widely used in cryptography, security and other applications: "Quantum random number generation on a mobile phone" by Bruno Sanguinetti, Anthony Martin, Hugo Zbinden, Nicolas Gisin. The principle of their work in explained in the figure below. The random number quality has passed a number of tests for randommness.


Thanks to DM for the link!
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 13, 2014 at 1:38 AM

    Aren't you just a well off using a single photodiode, or even a covered diode and digitizing thermal noise? I remember making white noise generators using a reverse biased diode back in days long past.

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    Replies
    1. Vladimir KoifmanMay 13, 2014 at 7:24 AM

      One of the advantages of image sensor array is a volume of random numbers that needs to be generated. They say that the modern security applications need a lot of random data that needs to be generated very fast.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMay 14, 2014 at 7:28 PM

      Fair enough Still, we all know there are many noise sources in images. An individual reading may be random, but the PDFs are well known.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousMay 13, 2014 at 7:00 PM

    Another random number generator is whether a given imager tapeout will work.

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  3. AnonymousMay 14, 2014 at 7:26 PM

    In my experience, imagers work better than 95% of the time. The images may be total garbage, but you can get an image. The secret is in getting a "good" image.

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