Spread Spectrum Inventor, Actress Hedy Lamarr, Dies
NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 19, 2000--Hedy Lamarr, the sultry, sexy screen star of the 1930s and 1940s who also conceived the frequency-hopping technique now known as spread spectrum, has died. Lamarr was found dead in her suburban Orlando, Florida, home Wednesday. She was believed to be 86.
Born Hedwig Kiesler in Austria, Lamarr came to the US in 1937 after being signed by MGM. She debuted on the American screen in 1938, co-starring with Charles Boyer in Algiers. Among her most successful films was the 1949 Samson and Delilah, directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
In her 1992 book Feminine Ingenuity, Lamarr describes how she came up with the idea of a radio signaling device for radio-controlled torpedoes that would minimize the danger of detection or jamming by randomly shifting the frequency. She and composer George Antheil developed the concept and received a patent for it in 1942.
The concept never saw fruition during World War II, but when the patent expired, Sylvania developed the idea for use in satellites. Spread spectrum also has found applications in wireless telephones, military radios, wireless computer links, and Amateur Radio experimentation.
Lamarr lived in an Orlando suburb in recent years and shunned publicity.
A more-detailed version of Lamarr's role in spread spectrum is described in the IEEE book Spread Spectrum Communications, published in 1983.--thanks to André Kesteloot, N4ICK and Bill Ricker, N1VUX
Page last modified: 10:39 AM, 20 Jan 2000 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
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