[7273] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: random seed generation without user interaction?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven M. Bellovin)
Tue Jun 6 17:03:32 2000
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@research.att.com>
To: Dennis Glatting <dennis.glatting@software-munitions.com>,
John Kelsey <kelsey.j@ix.netcom.com>, cryptography@c2.net,
Jeff.Hodges@stanford.edu
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Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 15:27:58 -0400
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In message <20000606153934.3566035DC2@smb.research.att.com>, "Steven M. Bellovi
n" writes:
>In message <393D04AC.8E119B01@software-munitions.com>, Dennis Glatting writes:
>
>>>
>>
>>There is an article (somewhere) on the net of digital cameras focused
>>on lava lamps. Photos are taken of the lava lamps and mixed into a
>>hash function to generate random data. I believe the author had some
>>algorithm for turning the lamps on and off, too.
>>
>See lavarand.sgi.com.
>
>I had thought it was patented, but a quick search of uspto.gov didn't
>turn it up.
Following up on my own post... My brain clearly wasn't in gear when I
did my previous search. It's U.S. patent 5,732,138; see
http://patents.uspto.gov/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+PATBIB-ALL+0+988124+0+6+31831+OF+1+1+1+PN%2f5%2c732%2c138
--Steve Bellovin
