Hedy Lamarr, pioneer of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

An actress who changed the history of technology

What do the Hollywood industry, World War II, and Wi-Fi have in common?

The answer is an Austrian film actress and inventor named Hedy Lamarr, born in 1914.

From Hollywood glamour to the war effort

In 1941, half the world was at war and the other half was about to enter it. Hedy was closely familiar with Hitler's government practices and harbored a deep resentment towards the Nazis, so she decided to make her personal contribution to the Allied war effort.

First, she offered her work and engineering background to the newly created National Inventors Council, but her offer was politely declined by the authorities, who advised her to base her participation on her physical appearance and her success as an actress, promoting the sale of war bonds. Far from being discouraged, she consulted her art representative, and they devised a campaign where anyone who purchased $25,000 or more in bonds would receive a kiss from the actress. In a single night, she sold 7 million dollars.

The invention that gave rise to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

And she kept going... Frequency-hopping spread spectrum was born after Lamarr realized that the radio signals guiding US Navy torpedoes were very easy to jam, causing them to veer off their initial course. While talking with composer George Antheil, they realized that they could change frequencies in the same way notes are changed on a player piano (it used a pair of synchronized perforated rolls to switch between 88 frequencies). And so they did. The military did not realize the usefulness of this invention until the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Lamarr's technology was used to control torpedoes and communication and, today, it is still in use for mobile networks, Bluetooth devices, and Wi-Fi.

A recognition that came late

Unfortunately, in her time, she did not receive the recognition she deserved for her contribution to technology, not until she was 82 years old. Both she and George Antheil (who had passed away in 1959) received the Pioneer Award in 1997, presented by the American organization Electronic Frontier Foundation, for their discoveries and contributions to the field of spread-spectrum technology.

In Austria, Inventors' Day is celebrated on November 9 in her honor.

At Suris Code, we promote innovation and recognition of the contributions of historical figures who have generated immeasurable technological advances that changed the lives of people and organizations.

Today, every time we connect to a Wi-Fi network, pair a Bluetooth device, or use mobile data, we continue to rely on the principles of spread spectrum that Lamarr helped conceive. Her story is a reminder that innovation often emerges from minds that their era failed to listen to.