> From: Arnold G. Reinhold [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>
> At 3:27 PM -0400 6/6/2000, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> >
> >Following up on my own post... My brain clearly wasn't in
> gear when I
> >did my previous search. It's U.S. patent 5,732,138; see
> >http://patents.uspto.gov/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+PATBIB-ALL+0+988
> 124+0+6+
> >31831+OF+1+1+1+PN%2f5%2c732%2c138
> >
> >
> > --Steve Bellovin
>
> The patent appears much broader than just focusing a camera on a Lava
> lamp. They claim digitizing the state of any chaotic system and then
> hashing it to seed a PRNG. The Lava lamp is given as a specific
> example (claim 3).
>
FYI: The punishment for not disclosing known prior art is to make the patent
invalid. (If the patent is otherwise valid, this is a pretty harsh
punishment).
Of course, at least one of "Noll; Landon Curt (Sunnyvale, CA); Mende; Robert
G. (Sunnyvale, CA); Sisodiya; Sanjeev" (the inventors) must have known of
prior art taking a chaotic system to get bits to seed a PRNG to create keys.
I have writen this code numerous times myself.
-Michael Heyman
