An emerging technology
in cartography
is something called elliptic
curve cartography, or ECC.
ECC was created because
of the constraints
that we have associated
with the calculations
that we use in
asymmetric encryption.
As you recall with
asymmetric encryption,
we have to have a lot of
mathematics that go into this.
It takes up a lot of
resources, a lot of CPU cycles.
And that's because with
asymmetric encryption,
we have to calculate these
very large integers that
also happen to be prime numbers.
And to be able to
figure that out
requires a whole
lot of calculations.
Well, in steps elliptic
curve cartography.
Instead of using
numbers to do this,
let's use these curves
that we've created.
Every curve has a mathematical
formula associated with it
and a number of
parameters that we
can assign to that and each
side can keep track of.
At the end of the
day, what this means
is that this is much
simpler to calculate.
So it takes fewer
storage requirements.
It's easier to
transmit, especially
over mobile connections
and mobile devices,
that already don't have a lot
of memory and a lot of CPU,
can now use a simpler
way of performing
this asymmetric encryption.
Another emerging
technology in cartography
is quantum cartography.
And like the name implies,
this is using quantum physics
and applying that into the
calculations and methods
of encryptions that we're doing
inside of our cartography.
What we're doing is this
mathematical movement
of these particles is now being
used as part of our encryption
mechanisms.
We are using some
practical examples of this.
There's something called
quantum key distribution, QKD.
And when you have two users
that are sending information
back and forth--
for instance, they
may be communicating a shared
key between each other.
And with that type
of communication,
you want to be sure that
nobody in the middle
is also able to see
that shared key.
It should be something that
only the endpoints are aware of.
Well, with quantum
key distribution,
if any third party happens
to try to look in there,
it's very, very obvious
that it has occurred,
because with quantum physics
you can tell when somebody
is looking into the
middle of what's going on.
This is a very practical use.
One that is being used
today in cryptography fate.
And we will certainly see
elliptic curve and quantum
cartography being
used more and more
as this particular kind
of technology evolves.
