Hedy Lamarr
was born in Austria in 1914, of Hungarian Jewish descent, and is an American actor. Co-inventor of spread spectrum (Spread Spectrum) technology. It is revered in literary works as the basic key to many modern wireless communication systems, including wireless local area networks and mobile phones. It is the "mother of Bluetooth (Bluetooth)" and was elected to the U.S. Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
Dave Mock, a famous American communication expert, once said, "As long as you use a mobile phone, you should know and appreciate her. This beautiful and sexy female star has made a huge contribution to the world's wireless communication technology that no one has ever matched. ".
Pursuing dreams
Hedy Lamarr, her father is a successful banker, and her mother is a well-known pianist. As an only child, Hedy Lamarr was deeply doted on by her parents, and because of this, she developed a willful and independent character since she was a child. In 1930, in order to pursue her artistic dream, 16-year-old Hedy Lamarr, despite her parents' strong opposition, resolutely gave up the communications major she was studying and followed a theater director to study acting in Berlin, Germany.
Lamarr in her youth
At first, Hedy Lamarr could only do the job of recording, but because of her stunning beauty and high intelligence, she soon got the opportunity to appear on the big screen. Her debut film was "The Street" money". Although it was just a walk-on role, Hedy Lamarr's beauty shocked the audience and brought her more acting opportunities. In 1932, Hedy Lamarr was invited by a film company in Czechoslovakia to play the heroine of the art film "Bewitched" and promised to promote the film to the international market, but the condition was that she must appear naked.
At that time, conservatism enveloped the European continent , and it would be considered "immoral" behavior for women to appear naked in movies. However, Hedy Lamarr, who is rebellious by nature and despises the secular world, has no fear. In order to realize her dream of becoming a heroine, she resolutely accepted the conditions set by the film studio. In this shocking film, 18-year-old Hedy Lamarr plays a charming young married woman, and she becomes the first actress in the world's film history to appear naked. .
Contact with the Nazis Get Secrets
Due to the success of "Charmed", Heidi met her first husband, Fritz Mandel. Mandel was also a Jew, but he supported the Nazis and even became a supplier to the Austrian army of the Nazis' main armaments. At that time, Germany was studying radio signal remote control torpedoes and wireless communication interference technology. Although wireless communication technology was the nation's top military secret at the time, Mandel allowed Heidi to observe and even record when he discussed related technology with weapons experts. In March 1938, the Nazis officially entered Austria, and Heidi stayed away from her failed marriage and many Nazi "friends". By the way, the "military secrets" of Nazi wireless communications were also brought to the Allies.
Inspired by the automatic piano
In 1939, Hedy Lamarr met musician and gland expert George Antheil and asked him how to make her breasts bigger. Unexpectedly, the topic between the two eventually switched from glands to weapons, and Antheil proposed an idea to Hedy Lamarr, thinking that the idea of "frequency hopping" could be realized by learning from the practice of automatic pianos.
With this fantastic idea, in the next two years, Hedy Lamarr acted during the day, and worked overtime with Antel at night to develop FM technology, and finally jointly designed an advanced technology in early 1940. aircraft navigation system . In this system, Antel conceived a pair of paper rolls, which were placed inside the aircraft and torpedo respectively, to specify the sequence of changing frequencies. In 1941, Hedy Lamarr and Antheil finally completed this research and applied for a patent for their "frequency hopping" device design. The radio "frequency hopping technology" is the " spread spectrum communication" of the 21st century. Technology " .
Heidi in research
In August 1942, after receiving the patent certificate , she announced that she would donate the patent to the US government, hoping to help win the war. However, at the joint meeting between the Navy, the National Inventions Council, and the FBI, the participants were not interested in this new technology and questioned Hedy Lamarr's scientific research capabilities. Not only that, because of Mandel's relationship, the FBI even doubted her loyalty to the United States and suggested that she should use her pretty face to help the government sell war bonds instead of doing scientific research.
Concentrate on acting career
The deeply hit Hedy Lamarr gave up scientific research and concentrated on acting career. However, the " frequency hopping technology " invented by her ultimately failed to be applied in World War II . It was not until the 1950s that Heidi's invention was widely used in military computer chips. This technology also inspired scientists and was widely used in the development of mobile phones, wireless phones and Internet protocols so that many people can use it together. radio signals in the same frequency band. Not only that, the US military has also developed many products based on this, including a remote-controlled unmanned aircraft used in the Vietnam War .
In 1943, Hedy Lamarr starred in the thriller "Stranger Woman" produced by herself. This was a noir film with sadistic elements, and it was also a breakthrough in her acting skills. Every year after that, Hedy Lamarr would star in a movie. In 1949, she filmed the love film "The King of Enchantress" directed by DeMille, in which she played the sexy but snake-hearted enchantress Dalila, which became her representative film. After 11 years, in 1958, Hedy Lamarr announced her retirement.
In 1985, Qualcomm was established in San Diego . This small company was still a little-known company at the time. It was based on the "frequency hopping" technology that it finally developed the CDMA wireless digital communication system and embarked on rapid development. trail of. Today, Qualcomm has become the leader in the global communications industry and ranks among the world's top 500 companies. However, few people in the world know that the theoretical source of the CDMA wireless digital communication system developed by this company is the long-gone star Heidi. · Rama.
In 1997, when CDMA-based communication technology began to enter public life, the scientific community remembered Heidi. The U.S. Electronic Frontier Fund awarded the invention of Heidi Lamarr, the first applicant for this patent fifty years ago. The "Electronic Border Fund-Pioneer Award" was awarded. This award recognized Heidi's contribution to computer communications. Scientists respectfully called Heidi the mother of CDMA. She was 83 years old at the time.
