Hedy Lamarr Google Doodle |
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Today's Google homepage features one of their famous Doodles that honors the accomplishments of Austrian-born actress Hedy Lamarr. You might wonder why I would point this out on an engineering website. Here's why: Aside from being one of the most well-known film stars of her era, Ms. Lamarr was also an inventor and received U.S. patent number US2292387* jointly with composer / pianist Antheil George for a "Secret Communication System." We refer to her invention today as frequency-hopping spread spectrum. Given that Google is heavily invested in spread spectrum technology and the company is staffed with some of the world's top engineers, it is no wonder the Google Doodle dedicates more than half of the presentation to Hedy Lamarr's technical accomplishments. You can watch the entire Doodle below, but here I show a few key screen cels of the story board.
Hedy Lamarr Google Doodle - November 9 * Note that the patent lists her given (born) name of Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. "Fizzies" production video - Hedy Lamarr should have patented that idea, too!
Posted November 9, 2015 |
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