4: Jon Williams on Roll them bones! The design and implementation of electronic dice

Overview: The problem of generating "reasonable" approximations to random numbers has been solved quite some time ago... but this talk is not for reasonable people. Generating true random numbers with a deterministic system is impossible; and so we must drink deeply from the raw, godless chaos of quantum physics. This talk will cover the various pitfalls of quantum true random number generator construction, including bias, statistical relatedness between bits, and unpleasant supply voltages. A working ref

Key Topics: erence design that overcomes these hurdles will be described, and barring major disaster, demonstrated. Notably, this design contains a custom, fully solid-state particle detector that may be constructed for around USD 20$. To benefit the most from this lecture, a very basic knowledge of statistics, particle physics, and/or analog electronics is ideal; however enough background will be provided that this will not be strictly necessary. If in doubt, the Wikipedia articles on quantum tunneling, alpha particle, normal distribution, operational amplifier, and hardware random number generator should provide more than sufficient background. Demo