How Hedy Lamarr's 1942 Patent Became the Foundation of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

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Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr and avant-garde composer George Antheil patented a 'Secret Communication System' on August 11, 1942, designed to prevent enemies from jamming radio-controlled torpedoes during World War II. Their invention, known as frequency hopping, worked by rapidly switching signals across multiple frequencies in a pattern known only to the sender and receiver. The U.S. Navy shelved the idea and never used it during the war, leaving Lamarr without recognition or financial reward for decades. The core technique later became foundational to spread-spectrum technology, which underpins modern Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS communications. Lamarr was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014, finally receiving credit for an invention that now touches billions of devices worldwide.

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