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Hedy Lamarr, femme fatale and inventor of spread spectrum communications
- Jun8 16y agoSee the nomination of Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil for the EFF award in 1997 (http://www.ncafe.com/chris/pat2/index.html http://www.ncafe.com/chris/pat2/index.html), she later received the award. Their invention was in 1942, way before the electronics that can implement this was invented, so it was mechanical.
- adelevie 16y agoI remember learning about her in my introductory telecom course. Amazing story.
- cpr 16y agoAnd a distant cousin to Dave Winer!
- ubernostrum 16y agoHedley!
- tbarkow 16y agoIt's an interesting and compelling story, and she deserves credit for her invention, but it's a serious exaggeration to say that she invented spread spectrum, or that current technology is based on her idea. There were actual scientists working on these technologies back in her day whose work informed spread spectrum's development directly. Because she had no real connection to the scientific community, Lamarr's patent didn't do much beyond languish in a file cabinet, I'm afraid.
- jluxenberg 16y agoAccording to the article, the patent was filed in 1942 and lapsed 17 years later in 1959. However: In 1998, "Ottawa wireless technology developer Wi-LAN, Inc. 'acquired a 49 percent claim to the patent from Lamarr for an undisclosed amount of stock'" Why purchase rights to an expired patent?
- lkjhgfghjkl 16y agoIs frequency hopping really the basis for spread spectrum? It's really more security through obscurity, or the frequency scrambling telephones that were available at the time.