Spread Spectrum: Hedy Lamarr and the mobile phone

This popular book was updated in 2013 just thirteen years after the death of the glamourous film star Hedy Lamarr. She was a famous Hollywood star and the first woman to appear naked on film. George Antheil was a piano player and composer. So just how did these two come to invent the latest technology used by the mobile phone? Or did they? She was labelled 'the most beautiful girl in the world' and he 'the bad boy of music' yet way back in 1942 they took out a patent covering the vital radio technique that we now call spread spectrum.

This absorbing book traces the eventful and sometimes scandalous lives of Hedy and George. It tells the fascinating story of radio and the ongoing battle to make it secure and of similar quality to wired communication. Spread spectrum emerged from that battle to become the solution of choice for anything from mobile phones to wireless computer networks.

Though now concentrating on a non-technical writing career Rob Walters is a successful author of approachable technical books published by Artech House, Wiley and Blackwell. His interest in Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil arose whilst researching the area of spread spectrum, a period during which he spent much of his time teaching people of all backgrounds about mobile communications. He is an accomplished communicator via the written word (magazine articles, books, newsletters, etc), and the spoken word at conferences and in the classroom. Rob is a patent holder. He therefore has a good understanding of the world of invention in addition to expertise in the technology which Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil unearthed. He has been writing seriously for well over a 15 years, including books about his home city of Oxford, travel books and novels. He also enjoys guiding people around the beautiful city of Oxford. More details on current and past activities are available at Rob's website: www.robsbookshop.com