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Today, whether you are scrolling on your phone, watching a series on Netflix, or completing office work from home, everything is done without any wires, it is only because of Wi-Fi. In today’s world, we have become so accustomed to wireless connection that even a moment without it seems difficult. Getting free Wi-Fi while sitting in a coffee shop, listening to music through Bluetooth in the train, or finding directions through GPS, all these have become a part of our everyday life. But do you know that the person who laid the foundation of this magical wireless technology was a glamorous Hollywood actress? Yes, we are talking about Hedy Lamarr – who is called the world’s ‘most beautiful woman’.
80 years ago, when people only saw her spreading beauty on the screen, she was secretly working on a technology that today keeps our phones, laptops and the entire digital world connected. His invention—frequency hopping—was born out of a wartime need, but today it is the backbone of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS – there is an actress at the root of everything
She was a Hollywood star of the 1940s, who shone in films like ‘Samson and Delilah’. But her true talent lay behind the camera – she was a brilliant inventor whose inventions lay the foundation for technologies we know today like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.
During the Second World War, Heady discovered that the enemy could easily render the Allies’ torpedoes (submarine-launched weapons) useless by jamming radio signals. The signal remained on the same frequency, so it was easy to stop it. Heady thought, if the signal keeps changing frequency again and again, it will be very difficult to jam it. This is called frequency hopping, which is a form of spread spectrum technology.
Heidi loved music. He shared the idea with avant-garde composer George Antheil. Antheil was an expert in player piano (automatic piano), in which notes were changed with a tape with holes. Together they developed the idea that both devices sending and receiving signals would change frequency in the same pattern, like the notes on a piano roll. This makes the signal secure and jam-proof.
In 1942, he received a patent for ‘Secret Communication System’. Headey offered it to the US Navy for free, but it was turned down at the time. Perhaps because she was an actress, people did not take her scientific talent seriously. The patent expired and he never received royalties.
Things changed in 1960
But time did justice. The US Army started using this technology in the 1960s. Today frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) and other forms of spread spectrum are used primarily in Bluetooth. Early Wi-Fi standards (such as 802.11) included FHSS, and the entire spread spectrum technology (of which DSSS is the core) is inspired by Headey’s quest for interference protection and secure communications. Our wireless internet, mobile networks, GPS – everything has its imprint. This technology spreads the signal to make it stronger and safer, just as Headey had envisioned.
Got a place in the Hall of Fame
Belatedly, he received an award in 1997 and a place in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014. Heidi’s story shows how much depth can lie behind beauty. She proved that even an actress can create world-changing technology. When you connect to Wi-Fi today, remember Hedy Lamarr—her vision gave us the wireless world.
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