Hedy Lamarr
? ??Hedy?Lamarr?was born?Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler?in 1914 in Vienna, Austria. By the time she was a teenager, she had decided to drop out of school and seek fame as an actress. She first appeared in a German film in 1930. She was attractive and talented enough to be in three more films in 1931, but it was her?controversial?film "Ecstasy" that brought her worldwide fame as an actress.
????In 1937, she?fled?from her country and secretly moved to Hollywood, where she?reinvented?herself. She changed her name to Hedy Lamarr, with the nickname "The Most Beautiful Woman in Films". However, Lamarr?defied?the leading-lady?stereotype?by also?pursuing?an interest in mathematics and engineering. She soon took up inventing. Her earliest inventions included an improved traffic?stoplight?and a?tablet?that would?dissolve?in water to create a?carbonated?drink.
????With the?ongoing?World War, Lamarr was?inspired?to contribute to the?war effort. She designed a radio?guidance?system for?torpedoes. With the help of?composer?George Antheil, whom she met in 1940, she discovered a way to break up signals and transmit them over different frequencies. Using a method similar to the way?player pianos?work, they designed a frequency-hopping?system that?would continually change the radio signals sent to a torpedo. While others, including Nikola Tesla, had explored similar ideas of frequency hopping, Lamarr and Antheil obtained a?patent?for their invention in 1942 for what would become known as the?spread-spectrum technology.
????Although the U.S. Navy didn't adopt the technology during the war, it was used during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. For decades Lamarr's technology remained behind the scenes, but?ultimately?it led to the creation of today's?spread-spectrum?communication technology, such as Wi-Fi networks, mobile phones, GPS and Bluetooth technologies.
????Lamarr and Antheil?eventually?received several awards for their lifetime creative achievements that contributed so much to society. They were?inducted?into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014, after her death in 2000.
(Something is controversial if it causes public disagreement.)
