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SGI classic lavarandtm |
our LavaRndtm |
| Name |
Spelled lavarand, all lower case with 3 a's
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Spelled LavaRnd, mixed case with 2 a's
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| Action |
Uses images of LAVA LITE® lamps to
produce seeds for
Pseudo-Random Number Generators.
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Reference implementation uses
lens-capped digital cameras to
produce random numbers.
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| Generates |
Generates a 140 byte pseudo-random seed from a single LAVA LITE image.
Requires one to seed a
Pseudo-Random Number Generator
with the lavarand
output.
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Directly produces
cryptographically sound
random numbers.
A single camera image frame can typically produce between 340 and 1420
bytes bytes of random numbers.
|
| Performance |
Seed production rate was about 8000 bits of seed per second
on a 200 MHz SGI O2 under IRIX 6.5.
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Can produce between 77477 and 206443 bits of random data per second using
a Logitech QuickCam 3000 Pro USB camera running on a
RedHat 9.0 Linux on a 1.6Ghz AMD Athlon.
|
| Equipment |
Requires a digital camera and Lava Lite lamps.
Because the lamps had warm-up times and because
the light bulbs could burn out, 6 Lava Lite lamps
were needed.
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The reference implementation requires only a
low end low cost webcam.
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| Cost |
Equipment cost not including the O2 computer with O2cam:
$180 US for 6 Lava Lite lamps.
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Equipment cost not including your computer: the cost
of a low end webcam.
USB web cameras cost as little as $25 US (in Aug 2003).
|
| Size |
Requires 0.75m by 1.25m (~2 feet 6 inches by ~4 feet 1 inch) of floor space.
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Requires no additional floor space.
The USB digital camera can sit on top of the computer.
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| Inventors |
Invented by
Bob Mende,
Landon Curt Noll,
Sanjev Sisodiya
in 1996.
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Invented by
Landon Curt Noll and
Simon Cooper
in 2000.
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| Algorithm |
Method covered under SGI patent #5,732,138
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Method placed into the public domain.
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| Trademark |
lavarand is a trademark of SGI.
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LavaRnd is a trademark of Landon Curt Noll
and Simon Cooper.
See our
trademarks page for more details.
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| Availability |
Required special IRIX Specific software to grab the
image from the O2 camera.
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An open source reference implementation will be made available.
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