US Patent 7428562 - Self authenticating quantum random number generator

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7428562.html

Random number generators are important to applications in cryptography and modeling of probabilistic phenomena (e.g. weather, stock market). Many computer algorithms using random numbers are actually based on pseudorandom number generators which may ultimately be reproducible and non-ideal for some modeling. This patent from Hewlett Packard teaches a method using an entangled quantum system to generate a true random sequence. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for generating a random series, comprising:

generating an entangled quantum state of a first system and a second system;

measuring the first system and the second system;

determining a random value from a result of measurement of one of the first system and the second system; and

evaluating results from measurements of both of the first system and the second system to determine whether the results are consistent with the first and second systems being in the entangled state.