Celebrate Hedy Lamarr
Frequency hopping uses concepts from piano playing!
Next time you use your cell phone, WiFi or Bluetooth, or any other frequency hopping device you can thank Hedy Lamarr and her unique take on conceptualizing music and the piano.
Hedy Lamarr invented a new idea for frequency hopping using low tech player piano technology. Her motive was secure wartime communications for radio-guided missiles. But apparently the Navy laughed her and co-inventor composer George Antheil out of the office. They took out a patent in 1942 that was later used by corporations mining innovating technologies in the 1950s and 1960s. The beauty of this invention was the use of the piano, its notes and scales to arrive at a model Hedy and George implemented using the player piano roll of music. Completely out of context, the Navy could not understand its use, and the electronics that made the idea practical and feasible did not come along for decades.
Hedy Lamarr was a beautiful movie star during the golden age of Hollywood. Hedy is reported to have said “Any girl can be glamorous. All she has to do is stand still and look stupid.”
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Hedy on IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001443/
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Ada Lovelace Day http://findingada.com/
I love this story because practicing art frequently leads to seemingly unrelated ideas, and Hedy’s invention winds up being the core of all we take for granted in mobile communications. Plus, who would have expected such a wild smart idea from a movie star? She had a lot of nerve to take her idea so far. So many surprises!