Lavarand

Lavarand

Lavarand was Silicon Graphics' name for its random number generator that worked by taking pictures of the patterns made by the floating material in lava lamps, extracting random data from the pictures, and using the result to seed a pseudo-random number generator. [cite news | url = http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.08/random.html | work = Wired Magazine | title = Totally Random | volume = 11 | issue = 08 | date = August 2003]

It is covered under US patent|5732138, titled "Method for seeding a pseudo-random number generator with a cryptographic hash of a digitization of a chaotic system."

For a time, there was a web site at http://lavarand.sgi.com/ demonstrating the technique, but that is now defunct. Landon Curt Noll, one of the originators, went on to help develop LavaRnd, which does not use lava lamps. Despite the short life of lavarand.sgi.com, it is often cited as an example of an online random number source. [US patent|6889236] [US patent|7,031,991]

References


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