Today is the birthday of Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr. Born as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler on November 9, 1914, in Vienna, Austria, Ms Lamarr was once described as "the most beautiful woman in the world". Hedy Lamarr was discovered by producer Max Reinhardt in the 1920s and brought to Berlin. She starred in the film Ecstasy at the age of 18 in 1933. Her first Hollywood film was Algiers (1938) with Charles Boyer. She went on to star with popular actors like Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, and Jimmy Stewart.
Also Read | Hollywood Femme-Fatale Hedy Lamarr's Double Life As A Scientist, Inventor
Although Hedy Lamarr achieved international stardom as an actress, she found her career unsatisfying. She later developed a keen interest in applied science and, bored with acting, used her knowledge to become an inventor.
An idea that laid the foundation for today's WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems:
In 1941, Ms Lamarr and an avant-garde composer, George Antheil, filed a patent based on "frequency-hopping," in which a radio transmitter and its receiver jump from one frequency to another to prevent their signal from being intercepted.
Their gadget was aimed at developing radio-controlled torpedoes for the US Navy that could not be jammed by German warships.
But the idea was so far ahead of its time that the Navy didn't grasp its importance, and it took years to reach fruition.
Today, frequency-hopping is the basis for quick and secure communications in espionage, the military, mobile phones, and the internet. In short, it is the basis for today's WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems. But Ms Lamarr never gained a penny for her stroke of inventive genius.
"In a different era, she might very well have become a scientist. At the very least, it was an option that was derailed by her beauty," says film historian Jeanine Basinger.
(With inputs from AFP)
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