I bet the guys at Sony are wishing this Australian technological breakthrough happened years ago so they could avoid the current PSN issues. Aussie scientists have used silicon photonic crystals to create individual pairs of photons, which will pave the way for lightning fast, virtually unhackable data transmission.
The research was a collaboration between the Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) nodes at Sydney and Macquarie universities, with a bit of help from colleagues at the Universities of Bristol and St Andrews in the UK and the Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France.
The research breakthrough creates a pair of photons using a device just 100 microns long (about the thickness of a human hair), which means that hundreds could be used on a single computer chip, which could help make quantum computing a realistic endeavour.
According to Michael Steel, CUDOS chief investigator, explained the security aspect in the press release:
“Current systems use classical light to carry information, which hackers can easily tap into and use to their advantage. But you cannot copy the information encoded in quantum states without being noticed by the system. Single photon devices will ensure communication and information systems are secure from hackers, guaranteeing peace of mind for the users.”
The scientists behind the breakthrough will be reporting their findings in a paper to be presented in the US next week. Here’s hoping it pushes quantum computing into the next stages.
Tim
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 6:52 PMBut that also means the US government can’t intercept the transmissions without notice. They will never allow it in their country >_<
Jayden Pearse
Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 1:01 AMif quantum computing can be done cheaply then it’s use by consumers is pretty much inevitable
Max
Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 1:10 AMNo they will try and patent it and have sole rights so no one can tap their corporate/govt useage, while they merrily continue to tap everyone else.
jj
Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 1:27 AMNot necessarily true – they would probably run a duplicate of your quantum computer and all the actuations that ever occur on it. They could even send you an email to remind you to post on Facebook :)
gfgf
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 9:30 AMeregret
Joshua
Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 6:19 AM4chan will find a way…
Awnshegh
Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 8:56 AMHmmm. Now all they need to do is find away to stave off decoherence in a logic circuit for a longer period (a few milliseconds should do it) and at room temperature and we’ll be set.
I see this hitting the financial district first as they’ll be the first to be hit by the brute force magnificence that is quantum computing.
SimonK
Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 9:55 AMIf a quantum computer is affected when it is being observed, on a commercial scale you will probably find your system always in a state of perpetual observation (hackers, government, etc), rendering all benefits moot.