For randomness you should use an ADC noise
If you mean the lsb of an adc with any input then this is not very random at all (tested this and they are very predictable so even the samplerate is important here)
The approach essentially depends on the notion that an adc has some inherent randomness - typically the lsb is not stable in the last few lsbs.
The thought that the lsb of the adc was random was tested with multiple sampling rates and different kind of input signals and unfortunately found to be not good enough for this purpose (tested with the diehard testsuite, it failed miserably).
There are many reasons that an approach could fail. The fact that it failed doesn't by itself mean that the approach is fundamentally flawed.
If you post your code, schematic and data obtained, I am happy to help you - cannot assure that it will pass any test per se.
The same approach actually does not require a pin to float - you can adc a grounded pin, or a pin connected to an internal source (Vcc or Vref for example). It also works better with higher resolution adc modules (12-bit vs. 10-bit for example).
-The usual statistical standards, states that a sequence of numbers, that cannot be discriminated from a sequence of independent uniform deviates from the
unit interval, is considered random. PRNGs that are acceptable by these standards are suitable for simulations, games, and similar applications.
-The cryptography standards have to do with predictability. It is less important whether the sequence is uniformly distributed, but it is essential that knowing part of the sequence does not contribute any knowledge about other parts. This requirement is called unpredictability.
it needs 80MB of the generated data...
For that, a simple pseudo random variable will work: smaller footprint, and faster execution.
Randomness is over-rated.
And I understand that I could just as easily have it generate random numbers internally, but I want to have it interactive in some way.
And I understand that I could just as easily have it generate random numbers internally, but I want to have it interactive in some way.
I completely missed this line.
Generate random numbers internally, and then bias them with a deterministic measurement?
Not much flash at all, if you code efficiently. A Mersenne twister would use a lot of RAM, though, but this algorithm is very small.
Any of those methods would make it statistically more random, but not necessarily cryptographically random. Clearly Stonent doesn't need cryptographic randomness