Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by Houshalter on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:01PM
(#16041685)
What would be an easier way? A wall of lava lamps seems pretty easy to set up.
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Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by pvg on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:14PM
(#16041785)
The zillions of sources of EM/thermal/etc noise. It's so prevalent, most of the time the effort is spent in trying to get rid of it.
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by blattimwind on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:39PM
(#16041938)
Very wideband Zener noise sources are a common piece of measurement equipment; and many folks built their own noise sources (also for RNGs) using Zener junction breakdown. While building my own I needed quite a bit of shielding to avoid interference issues by RF sources (mostly HF fluoerescent lights and LEDs), so these sources might be susceptible to bias by EMI...?
Other junction breakdowns have noise as well, resistive noise is very low power. Atmospheric noise and background noise is a thing too, but I'd guess they are too susceptible to interference by malicious actors...
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by pvg on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:47PM
(#16041975)
Such sources are always post-processed to deal with bias and correlation. No sane implementation just takes the straight measured output, whether it's keyboard interrupt timing or radioactive decay.
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by jakobegger on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:42PM
(#16041950)
the random noise from the camera sensor is plenty good randomness. It would work just as well without the lava lamps.
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by ScottBurson on Monday January 01, 2018 @03:51AM
(#16045316)
If you want the same kind of visual display but with much lower power consumption, a much higher bit rate, and better reliability, I'd suggest a few plasma spheres, e.g.: https://www.scientificsonline.com/product/nebula-plasma-ball
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by psychometry on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:09PM
(#16041755)
There are an infinite sources of random audio out there that aren't susceptible to human interference.
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by comboy on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:03PM
(#16041711)
busy streets webcams?
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by twic on Sunday December 31, 2017 @02:07PM
(#16042104)
Put a fountain in the lobby and have a microphone listening to the splashes.
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by MBCook on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:08PM
(#16041745)
That would be susceptible to traffic patterns.
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by comboy on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:29PM
(#16041881)
Cars don't look exactly the same and are not in the exact same places. Lighting changes. People look very different and walk different paths. It's going through PRNG so even very small pixel differences (which you can find even on an empty street thanks to changing weather, litter, wind and so on) are good enough if they are unpredictable. In other words, when you compare pictures of the same lava lamp with pictures of some random cars, I think you will be able to find more patterns in the lava lamp movement. You would also likely be able to predict it better (well that's the same thing I guess).
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by Quenty on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:56PM
(#16042038)
My guess is there’s still enough noise it doesn’t matter.
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by firethief on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:24PM
(#16041839)
Not meaningfully. The input doesn't need to be uniform, just unpredictable. Statistical patterns are fine, as long as no one can predict exactly what's going to happen (to the pixel level). Even if all the drivers on the road were collaborating, they couldn't coordinate well enough to feed the camera adversarially predictable inputs. At least, not human drivers...
Re:A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
by MBCook on Sunday December 31, 2017 @03:52PM
(#16042891)
I was thinking more along the lines of busy/non-busy times may affect how much random data you get at different times of the day/week.
Not specifically some sort of giant coordinated attack to modify the randomness generated to specific values.