Laser trick churns out secure random numbers

November 24, 2008 | Source: New Scientist Tech

A new system that can generate random numbers 10 times faster than existing devices has been developed by NTT and Saitama University researchers.

They added an external mirror to a standard semiconductor laser to reflect some of the light back inside the laser. That feedback causes the light produced to oscillate randomly. This can create to a single, truly random number sequence.