Hedy and the torpedo

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AnalogKid

Joined Aug 1, 2013
10,987
And a great big happy 101st birthday to the mother of frequency hopping and spread spectrum communications, Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler:

In the 1933 Czech film "Extasy", actress Hedy Lamarr made history with the world's first nude scene.

"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."
- Actress Hedy Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, today, November 9, 1913)

1. Glamorous: Was billed as "the world's most beautiful woman" in the 1940's.

2. Stupid: Turned down the lead in Casablanca.

3. Not Stupid: On August 11, 1942, Hedy Kiesler Markey and George Antheil were awarded US Patent #2,292,387. Her idea, the frequency hopping system of spread spectrum radio transmission, is the cornerstone of secure military and commercial radio communications. Most high-end cordless home phones have the feature, most cell phones in the US do not, but 5 *billion* GSM phones in Europe and Asia do. She invented it as a way to make radio-controlled torpedos jam-proof. By the time the US Navy decided to use it, deploying it for the first time on October 22, 1962 in the 1962 Cuba naval blockade, the patent had expired. She never made a cent on her idea, literally 20 years (and 2 months and 11 days) ahead of its time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr#Frequency-hopping_spread-spectrum_invention

http://www.google.com/doodles/hedy-lamarrs-101st-birthday

ak
 

DickCappels

Joined Aug 21, 2008
10,152
As I recall it was the baseband signal that hopped, but just the same, it was a form for frequency hopping. I think we have to give Heinrich Hertz the award for the first ultra wide band communications.
 
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