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The University of Geneva and the company id Quantique team to launch the first web site offering the possibility to download random numbers from quantum origin.

Geneva, March 18, 2004 – The number of applications requiring random numbers increases continuously. They are used for example in cryptographic applications to guarantee the secrecy of electronic communications, in scientific calculations or in chance games and lotteries. In spite of this, their generation remains a difficult task. The Group of Applied Physics and the Computer Science Department of the University of Geneva team with the company id Quantique to launch the first website allowing to download random numbers from quantum origin and to make true random numbers widely available.

The website – conveniently located under the web address www.randomnumbers.info - offers the possibility to request a sequence of random numbers. The length and the bounds of the sequence can be specified by the user. A quantum random number generator connected to the server is used to produce the numbers on demand. This website will evolve and expand in the future to become the reference resource on randomness and random numbers on the internet.

According to Nicolas Gisin, professor at the Group of Applied Physics, “Quantum physics is the only physical theory predicting that the outcome of certain phenomena is random. It is thus a natural choice to use it to generate true random numbers.” The Group of Applied Physics developed in 1998 the first practical quantum random number generator. This device exploited an elementary quantum optical process – namely the reflection or the transmission of a light particle on a semi-transparent mirror – to produce binary random numbers.

I first read about such on optical quantum random number generator last year in the book A Shortcut Through Time : The Path to the Quantum Computer. This is very good overview of the theoretical basis or quantum computing and where we are now. It's very cool to see this quantum random number generator online. Quantum computers play a part in many of the books of Robert J. Sawyer. In particular the books of the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, and my personal favorite computer character from science fiction, Jason from Golden Fleece.