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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!

5 comments:

  1. 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. 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.

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    2. 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.

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

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  3. 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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