Hedy Lamarr was a famous
Viennese immigrant who was most recognized for her acting and modeling in
Hollywood but who also, with the help of
George Antheil, invented "
frequency hopping" for use in
Torpedoes in
World War Two. The idea was to make a "
player piano" like
mechanism that allowed controller and
torpedo to
simultaneously hop radio frequencies to avoid jamming and
countermeasures by nazi
U-Boats. The idea was considered
convoluted and too complicated by the
US government and scrapped.
Three years after their patent ran out in 1962, the
US government used her idea in their blockade of
Cuba.
Now there are over 1200 patents listed that deal with "
Spread Spectrum" technology and it is used in
satellites,
missiles,
air-planes, wireless services and even
Internet applications.
Hedy
Lamarr received an award from the
Electronic Frontier Foundation for her contributions to
science and
humanity. She died on January 19th, 2000 having never received a penny for her invention.