This was an item on BBC Breakfast this morning about the film 'Bombshell' - the Hedy Lamarr Story.
Taken from a couple of write-ups on the 'net:
"When Nazi U-Boats torpedo a ship carrying 83 school children during World War II, Hollywood movie star, Hedy Lamarr, decides to exact revenge. At night, after shooting her scenes on set, she works on a secret radio system that will allow the Allies to torpedo Nazi U-Boats with deadly accuracy. Her sketches remain ideas until a chance encounter with an eccentric composer enables her to transform them into useful technology. The secret communication system she creates is ground-breaking and eventually changes the course of history. It would make a terrific fictional film, but this story happens to be true."
"As World War II raged and the Allies found their submarine warfare capabilities less than optimal, Hedy Lamarr came up with an idea to dramatically improve the accuracy of torpedo guidance systems. She further developed the concept—known as frequency hopping—with assistance from her friend, the composer/inventor George Antheil, and they obtained a patent for it in 1942.
Lamarr gave the technology to the U.S. Navy, with the tacit understanding she would be compensated if it were incorporated into weapons systems. She was never paid, although the Navy did begin using the technology at some point after WWII.
The frequency hopping idea became critical in the design of secure communication systems including Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth, according to Nino Amarena, a wireless communications expert who played a consulting role on the documentary. He says companies, including one he worked for in the 1990s, still referred to Lamarr’s work long after her patent had expired.
Frequency hopping spread spectrum—that’s what it’s called, the modulation for Wi-Fi. That frequency hopping came from Hedy Lamarr,” he explains. “So we were actually lifting, so to speak, the entire idea, conceptually and in the implementation, from Hedy Lamarr’s invention.”
I can't find anything to say this was a recent discovery.... so I don't know, but what an interesting find.
The film is in cinemas from tomorrow.
