IP: Quick stop the export of Lava Lights

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Lava Lites: Easy to Break, Hard to Crack
> by Mark Frauenfelder 
>
> 7:46pm  19.Mar.97.PST Originally used by space-age bachelors to illuminate
> their swinging pads, Lava Lites have been a perennial favorite of
> aficionados of kitsch culture. But of the 2.5 million Lava Lites sold since
> 1963, six have been assigned to a higher purpose - cryptography. 
>
> Landon Curt Noll, a cryptologist and number theorist with Silicon Graphics,
> along with his colleagues Robert G. Mende Jr. and Sanjeev Sisodiya, are
> using the liquid-filled lamps to help generate random numbers, which are an
> important component of cryptography. "It sounds far out," says Noll, "but
> using Lava Lites [to obtain random numbers] is based on sound fundamental
> math and physics." 
>
> No computer program can, on its own, generate truly random numbers. In
> fact, the computer pioneer John Von Neumann once said, "Anyone who
> considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in
> a state of sin." 
>
> While computational methods cannot yield truly random sequences,
> computers can use a variety of input devices that sense random activities
> in the real world, and use these to create random - or at least
> cryptographically strong pseudorandom - numbers. For example, a PC
> add-on card that generates random static from a "noisy" diode will do the
> trick. 
>
> Another way to get a random seed is to measure the minute variation of a
> hard drive's motor speed caused by air turbulence. The popular encryption
> program PGP measures the time interval in milliseconds between a user's
> keystrokes to generate a "seed" number, which is then input into a
> pseudorandom-number algorithm. 
>
> Noll and his colleagues have taken a different approach to obtaining
> physical data. They've set up six Elec-Trick model Lava Lites (red, orange,
> yellow, green, blue, and purple) in front of an IndyCam digital camera. The
> manner in which the melting globs of wax in the lamps rise and fall cannot
> be accurately predicted by any computational method, making them
> excellent sources of random noise. 
>
> The IndyCam takes a digital snapshot of the six lamps; the digital file is
> then run through a one-way hash-function (an algorithm that returns a
> fixed-length string, destroying any "structure" that exists in the digitized
> image) to produce an 800-bit seed, which is used as the starting value for
> the Blum Blum Shub pseudorandom generator. 
>
> The idea of using Lava Lamps to generate random numbers came to Noll,
> Mende, and Sisodiya during one of Silicon Graphics' regular Friday afternoon
> beer blasts. "I have a virtual basketball game set up at my desk," say
> Mende. "It uses an IndyCam and superimposes a basketball court over the
> picture." The edge-detection function of the game allows players to wave
> objects, such as notebooks or business cards, in front of the camera to
> guide a virtual basketball into the basket. 
>
> "I decided that the Lava Lite in my office could do a better job of getting
> the ball in the hoop than I could, so we set it up in front of the
camera," said
> Noll. He placed his Lava Lite in front of the camera as well, so that the two
> lights "played" each other. 
>
> He noticed the score racking up as the blobs of lava knocked the ball into
> the hoops and a light bulb went off in his head. "This could be a random
> number generator," he told Mende. They called Sisodiya over and had a
> working prototype in an hour, and an internal Web page an hour after that.
> They dubbed the system "Lavarand." 
>
> Shortly afterward, the three scientists applied for a patent, which claims
> ownership for any process that uses one of more chaotic sources plus zero
> or more nonchaotic sources, digitizes them, crypto-hashes the digital file,
> then uses the file as a seed for a random-number generator. 
>
> Lava Lites are just one specific application of the more general patent.
> "Using Lava Lites is unique and novel," says Noll, "but also sound, resulting
> in strong cryptographic data. To reverse the process, you'd have to come
> up with the exact same picture of the Lava lamps. If even one pixel has a
> different shade you end up with a completely different hash." 
>
> Using Lava Lites to generate random numbers may be new, but the lamps
> are no strangers to secrets. The creators of the first Lava Lite,
> Lava-Simplex Internationale in Illinois, introduced the lamp in 1963,
> describing it as an "exotic new decorator lite that soothes, intrigues,
> fascinates, [and] entertains." Part of the intrigue is the mysterious "lava"
> that gloops around in the transparent watery liquid. Lava-Simplex has
> closely guarded the exact composition of the two liquids (which has led to
> endless speculation on Usenet) but will admit that there are 14 different
> ingredients, the main two being wax and water. 
>
> When the liquid is heated by the 40-watt bulb installed in the base of the
> lamp, the "lava" becomes less dense than the surrounding fluid, making it
> rise to the top. There, it cools down and becomes more dense than the clear
> liquid, causing it to fall to the bottom. The cycle repeats endlessly, until
> the lamp is switched off, or the zoned-out viewer knocks it over, causing it
> to break open and spill across the floor. The subsequent futile attempts to
> scrub the glop out of the shag carpet before Mom gets home may be the
> best random action generator of all. 
>
> Noll says that the Lavarand system will be put to use immediately at
> Silicon Graphics, and anticipates licensing the technology as well. "We
> already have been approached by interested parties," he says.