9 November is reserved to Hedy Lamarr
She is remembered for her beauty on the silver screen, but the Hollywood actor spent her nights inventing a weapons communication system that was a precursor to wireless technologies including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Lamarr also, captured international attention as the first female actor to simulate an orgasm in a non-pornographic film.
Lamarr quickly got bored of Hollywood, though, and decided to try her hand at helping the Allied war effort instead. She had learned about military technology from her first husband, arms manufacturer Friedrich Mandle, and decided to use that knowledge for the greater good
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She teamed up with her friend George Antheil, a composer, to figure out how to help stop German submarines from jamming Allied radio signals using the same mechanisms found in pianos. In 1942, she developed the “secret communication system,” a frequency-hopping mechanism that laid the foundation for the development of Bluetooth and wi-fi technology. She died at the age of 85 in 2000.
"Her idea of a good evening was a quiet dinner party with some intelligent friends where they could discuss ideas."
Indeed she falls in the category "Brains before beauty". ;)
Article:
http://time.com/4104382/hedy-lamarr-2/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/karlshmavonian/2013/08/14/thoughts-on-innovation-and-hedy-lamarr/
#womeninstem #hedylamarr #history
Actually seems she had equal portions of brains and beauty, which is rare.
ReplyDeleteQuestion then becomes was she a beautiful personality as well?
A killer combination, qualities which you of course have as well. A beautiful mind is rare indeed.
ReplyDeleteI remember learning about frequency hopping in my degree and how FH-CDMA and it is a clever system, though refined since in order to increase capacity and efficiency
Frequency-hopping spread spectrum; The enemy disrupting radio communications, but a change of frequency agreed between the receiver and the transmitter aside the trouble! So you could give orders to secure such missiles. In 1941 the system was deemed too complex by United States Navy and not accepted by Washington, but in 1962 cuban missile crisis It was successfully adopted by the United States as a communication system on board all ships. http://www.google.com/patents/US2292387 http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2292387.pdf
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