WEBVTT
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Herald Angel: Anja Drephal studied
history, American studies, Japanese
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studies in Berlin and Tokyo in Graz and
also in Vienna and when I asked her she
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said kind of everywhere. So, it's her
third talk on a Chaos Communication
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Congress. She was here three years ago and
two years ago and we are very happy to
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have her back - please welcome her!
applause
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Anja Drephal: Thank you! Oh I'm on -
that's good! I would have taken that
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screwdriver but - okay, it's too bad!
Well, thank you all for being here I hope
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you all having a good time so far. It's
day three and I'm having a good time. It's
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a very good Congress. This year
unfortunately it's been hard for some
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people to actually be here. It's been a
nightmare to buy tickets online. So in
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addition I'd like to welcome everybody
watching a stream from at home or Congress
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everywhere so thank you for watching!
Anyone of you watching this from at home
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or anyone of you who has some sort of cell
phone mobile device connected to the
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Congress Wi-Fi has actually been using
spread spectrum technology in the past
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couple days. But this is not a talk about
spread-spectrum technology. Oh, and I
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wanted to give a hint to the translations
team - in German, that's
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"Bandspreizverfahren" and... je suis
desolé, je ne sais pas what it means in
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French... So, this is not what I want to
talk about because I would never pretend
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to be an electrical engineer or a fully
trained computer scientist who is
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qualified to explain this very complex
technology.
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What I want to do is tell you a story,
give you a short 20 minute overview of a
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person, a remarkable person, who worked on
the development of spread spectrum
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technology about 75 years ago and until
recently was not recognized for her
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accomplishments. Let's say you are an
electrical engineer or you are a computer
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scientist and you want to learn about this
technology. I try to avoid saying it
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because it's such a tongue twister and I'm
gonna stumble over the spread-spectrum.
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So yeah, so you go to your library and you
find lots of big handbooks, handbook on
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spread-spectrum communication for example
and there you usually you have sort of an
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introduction with something like this
never mind if you can't read it right now
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I've uploaded my slides so you can look at
it later and I'll also explain anything
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that's important this is from an Austrian
handbook and of course it mentions a
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"Claude Shannon" in 1948 publishing a
mathematical theory of communication, a
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very important paper, and before that
actually it mentions in 1942 "Markey" and
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"Antheil" are patenting the first spread-
spectrum system ever.
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So you're wondering who is "Markey" and
"Antheil"? Probably some guys at MIT,
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right? Working for the military in 1942,
developing secret weapons? It could be.
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So, ladies and gentlemen, this is Markey.
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Hedwig Kiesler born in 1914 in Vienna.
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She was a beautiful child, she was 16 when
she decided to quit school and become an
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actress, she started hanging around the
Sascha-Film studio in Vienna. She also
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stalked famous director Max Reinhardt
until he cast her in his play "The Weaker
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Sex". She had a couple more minor roles,
she played "Sissi", she played opposite
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Heinz Rühmann, and it was - oopsie - it
was Max Reinhardt who - promoting his play
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- coined the phrase "Hedy Kiesler is the
most beautiful woman in the world!" and
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the press picked it up very quickly. Here
she's again. Then when she was 18, she did
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something very daring: she starred in
Czech film called "Ecstasy". It's very
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interesting, please ask me about it or
watch it on YouTube. There was full
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frontal nudity and she faked the first on-
screen orgasm. The film was banned, the
NOTE Paragraph
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Pope denounced it and Hedy became famous.
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But then after "Ecstasy", surprisingly,
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Hedy stopped acting and she married: this
guy. She became the young trophy wife of
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Fritz Mandl. He was - at that time - the
third richest man in Austria. He was the
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owner of the "Hirtenberger ammunitions
factory", he was also an Austro-fascist,
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he supplied weapons to a lot of unsavory
individuals and organizations and - as his
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beautiful young trophy wife - she was
supposed to be there at parties, at
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meetings with important industrialists,
weapons dealers, politicians and to just
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stand there and look beautiful.
But she also listened when they spoke
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about developments, about German glide
bombs being tested and developed. She
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listened and she noticed. After a couple
of years, for whatever reason, I think
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Mandl was pretty controlling and then
jealous, for one reason or another, Hedy
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left him and used her "Ecstasy"-fame to go
to the US and get a contract at MGM in
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1937. Her first film in the US was
"Algiers" and this film established her
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fame, her new look, her hairstyle and this
very distant kind of unsmiling style that
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MGM had in mind for her and they also
promoted her as the most beautiful woman
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in the world. Critics usually agreed that
she could not act, but, oh my god, she's
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so beautiful, who cares? She... actually,
she was not just beautiful. She was also
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bored with acting, because usually,
working for a studio, you made like two
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movies a year, which took a couple weeks,
and the rest of the time, well, there was
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no Netflix. So, she didn't like to party
that much, she read, she painted and she
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always invented little gadgets at home.
And she also worried, of course, at that
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time. She worried about the war going on
in Europe. She had... She was an
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immigrant, after all. She had friends and
family still in Europe and, oh yeah, it's
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just a couple of... that's Clark Gable,
Jimmy Stewart, and then she was Delilah in
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"Samson and Delilah", Technicolor, yeah,
anyway she worried. And that's a fun tweet
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I found: "The feeling when you are 3,000
percent done with glam photo shoots and
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are inwardly planning a new radio
frequency system for torpedoes"
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laughter
I like it.
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So that's what she started doing, because
she remembered what she had picked up. She
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knew about German bombs being controlled
by radio, she knew that Germany was using
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18 different frequencies for their glide
bombs and usually dispatching 18 bombs at
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a time so the enemy would have to jam
every single frequency and at least one
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would - you know - get through.
So especially in 1914, when Germany
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started sinking English ships in September
1940, 77 children who were being evacuated
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to Canada died, she offered her knowledge
about weapons to the Navy. She thought
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about offering it, because she had an
idea. These German glide bombs they were
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radio-controlled. So why not make
torpedoes with radio control to increase
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their chances of hitting targets and not
just going in a straight line and maybe
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hitting something or not. Her second idea
was to use just really really short
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signals just split-second radio signals
between the ship, the torpedo and a plane
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overhead, in between longer intervals of
radio silence. And then her idea was
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changing the frequency of the split-second
signal, making it harder to intercept and
NOTE Paragraph
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jam. Let's check, she just said "Okay,
let's just use a lot of frequencies and hop!".
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She called it "frequency hopping".
But of course, the question is: how to do that?
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And here's where that second name
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mentioned in the patent comes in. This is
"George Antheil". He was from New Jersey.
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In the 1920s, he moved to Berlin and then
to Paris and became famous as an avant-
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garde composer and pianist. There's
another one...
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His most famous composition was the
"Ballet Mécanique" in 1924, where he tried
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to synchronize 16 player pianos and he
also used airplane propellers and
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sirens... You can also watch it on the
internet. Listen to, it's crazy! It was
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the score for a movie, actually.
So, he knew about synchronizing mechanical
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instruments when he met Hedy in 1940 at
one of those Hollywood parties.
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And they started working together on their
secret communication system, which they
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proposed to the National Inventors Council
in 1941. Ah, here he is. There's... The
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tall one is Hedy and on the right is
George and the woman in the striped dress
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is George's wife. So their secret
communication system suggested using 88
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frequencies, because there are 88 keys on
a piano (it was just a little in-joke) and
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hopping between them, synchronizing the
sender, the transmitter, and the receiver
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and in addition using random signals on
three extra frequencies to just make some
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noise. So, you have 88 frequencies and
you're hopping on some with the signal.
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You're sending one signal there, one
signal here, and then you're sending
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random signals that don't mean anything
and if the enemy actually manages to
NOTE Paragraph
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intercept one of these frequencies, they
would be like just one "blip" and it
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wouldn't make any sense.
NOTE Paragraph
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What I want to just quickly
talk about is this.
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So this is what they
thought might happen.
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Here's an American ship going there
dispatching a torpedo that would usually
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go here.
Here's a German ship and it doesn't go in
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a straight line because it's trying to
evade the torpedo.
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Here's plane and the plane is watching and
messaging the ship that the torpedo needs
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to change its course and the ship is
messaging the torpedo "go left, go right,
NOTE Paragraph
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go left, go right, go left", and then -
boom.
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For synchronization between the sender and
the receiver they suggested using these
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paper ribbons with punch holes just like
in those mechanical pianos that Antheil
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used to be familiar with.
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Oh here's actually a notebook
that they used for the
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mechanism that was supposed to make the
sender and the receiver go off at the same
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time, so they would be synchronized. The
New York Times picked it up and - like
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they said - the National Inventors Council
actually was positive, liked the idea and
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suggested that they should patent this.
The US patents office awarded them the
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patent but the Navy rejected it,
eventually. The Navy said it's too bulky,
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it's too big, we can't make this. But the
question is: Why?
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The Navy actually thought because they had
said they wanted to use these paper
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ribbons just like in a piano and they were
like: "We can't put a piano in a torpedo,
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are you crazy? It's not gonna work!" In
fact it would have been much smaller, of
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course. And then there was the issue of a
Hollywood star, known for her beautiful
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face and a crazy composer inventing a
weapon system? I don't think so.
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Then again the timing was kind of bad
right after Pearl Harbor the Navy was in
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shock and busy fixing their existing
torpedo system. Because in 1942 about 60%
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of American torpedoes were duds. They
exploded too soon, they didn't explode at
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all, they went anywhere and so the Navy
was like "Okay, we got to fix this and we
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can't really develop anything new right
now." And then one point that I've been
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thinking about is Hedy at that point was
still technically an enemy alien.
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She wasn't naturalized until 1953. So there's
obviously always the question of loyalty,
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I think.
Instead, she was... it was suggested that
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she should help the war by selling war
bonds, which she did very successfully.
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She sold seven million of... seven million
dollars of war bonds in one day which is
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in today's money about
100 million dollars.
NOTE Paragraph
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She also served cake at the
famous Hollywood Canteen.
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But her patent seemed
to have been forgotten.
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It ran out in 1959.
She never got anything from it.
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She never got any financial gain.
Nothing.
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But in fact, there was secret military
research on this topic.
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From the 1940s until the 1970s,
it was classified.
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The first time spread-spectrum technology
was used by the military was in 1962,
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during the Cuban Missile Crisis. A system
called "BLADES" was installed in ships in
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the Caribbean and later also in the
Mediterranean Sea. And this system using
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frequency-hopping spread-spectrum was the
only one that could not be jammed at that point.
00:18:17.580 --> 00:18:20.720
Civil use of this technology came much
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much later in the 1970s, 1980s when the
FCC started with a deregulation of
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frequencies and allowed civil use of
various frequencies in... let's say
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microwaves, later mobile phones,
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc., etc., it actually
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started being used in the civil sector.
In the early 1990s Dave Hughes, who is
NOTE Paragraph
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known as an internet pioneer, came across
Hedy, researched her patent and lobbied
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for her recognition for the first time.
00:19:04.661 --> 00:19:08.735
He got her nominated for the Electronic
00:19:08.739 --> 00:19:18.149
Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award, which
she was awarded in 1997. She was 82 years
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old, she didn't leave the house anymore.
Her son went there and got that award on
00:19:26.539 --> 00:19:31.519
her behalf and supposedly she was very
happy about it that she finally got some
00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:36.619
recognition.
In the past 10 years especially in Austria
00:19:36.619 --> 00:19:43.600
there has been at last more recognition of
Hedy. There was an exhibition around the
00:19:43.600 --> 00:19:50.159
country. The Austrian Republic awards the
Hedy Lamarr award for achievements by
00:19:50.159 --> 00:19:58.779
women in information technology. And
Vienna named a street after Hedy. Her
00:19:58.779 --> 00:20:03.950
birthday is now "Inventor's Day". In the
United States she was finally inducted in
00:20:03.950 --> 00:20:08.169
the National Inventor's Hall of Fame two
years ago.
00:20:08.169 --> 00:20:16.830
Well, I've been trying to speak just 20
minutes giving you an overview of this - I
00:20:16.830 --> 00:20:24.860
think remarkable - person who should get
much more recognition than she did.
00:20:24.860 --> 00:20:34.850
I think I've been a bit faster, actually -
that's good. I'm hoping that maybe I've
00:20:34.850 --> 00:20:42.090
been able to inspire some interest in this
person and maybe inspire as someone to
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read up on her or maybe watch her movies.
Sadly, she's been all but forgotten.
00:20:48.013 --> 00:20:55.984
Her career was... was big and very short. And
then she lived on for decades, she was
00:20:55.984 --> 00:21:02.580
forgotten, her inventions were forgotten.
So, I'm hoping that maybe you'd like to
00:21:02.580 --> 00:21:08.799
look at some sources, watch the movies you
could contact me. I have some... some
00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:17.429
really good books that I read on her that
I would recommend. And that would be good.
00:21:17.429 --> 00:21:27.629
That would... That would make me very
happy, because doing research on Hedy was fun.
00:21:27.629 --> 00:21:34.050
It kind of you kind of develop a
relationship to a person like that and I like her.
NOTE Paragraph
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She was she was considered
difficult, as a woman, as an actor,
00:21:39.982 --> 00:21:47.820
but I think she was considered difficult for
doing things that any man would have been considered:
00:21:47.820 --> 00:21:51.640
"Yeah, he's a strong guy and he knows
what he wants and he does what he wants!"
00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:54.679
She was always doing things her own way.
00:21:54.679 --> 00:21:57.587
She came to America on her own, alone.
NOTE Paragraph
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She made her way. She was...
She was basically, you could say, she was a refugee.
00:22:03.029 --> 00:22:05.109
I mean, she came with a contract,
00:22:05.109 --> 00:22:10.690
but she couldn't go back. Austria was
gone, there was war. She always missed it
00:22:10.690 --> 00:22:15.679
and she had to make her own way. She had
to fight for a place in life and she
00:22:15.679 --> 00:22:23.059
always tried to find happiness.
Unfortunately, she didn't really find it.
00:22:23.059 --> 00:22:31.539
And so, in closing, before, we can have a
couple minutes for questions, I hope.
NOTE Paragraph
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I'd like to ask you to give
a hand to Hedy.
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applause
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Herald Angel: Thanks a lot, Anya, for this
00:22:51.229 --> 00:22:58.690
very nice talk. We have a couple of
minutes for questions and answers, so if
00:22:58.690 --> 00:23:08.210
you have something that you would like to
know, please feel free to go to the mics.
00:23:08.210 --> 00:23:10.729
There's something going on online I think.
00:23:10.729 --> 00:23:11.729
AD: Okay
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Questioner: Yes thank you. I would like to
know, are there any compatible stories,
00:23:17.289 --> 00:23:24.360
where non-technical people / persons
contributed to technology.
00:23:24.360 --> 00:23:26.491
AD: I'm not sure
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Q: Is there another Hedy?
00:23:28.730 --> 00:23:32.289
AD: Oh another Hedy... I'm pretty sure
00:23:32.289 --> 00:23:41.179
there is. I can't come up with any example
right now, but... maybe someone does.
00:23:41.179 --> 00:23:45.320
Because there are so many people,
especially women, who are being overlooked
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for what they're doing like she was. I'm
sorry, I can't really come up with any
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examples right now. But especially when it
comes to women, it's still, sadly, it's
00:23:58.169 --> 00:24:05.059
still so hard for women, to be recognized
in a technological field like a man would.
00:24:05.059 --> 00:24:12.950
This always... Maybe especially when
you're this pretty. Nobody thinks that
00:24:12.950 --> 00:24:18.929
there's anything behind this pretty face
and I know, I would... like, if anyone has
00:24:18.929 --> 00:24:26.629
an example that would be great? I'm sure
there's a lot of people who are another Hedy.
00:24:26.629 --> 00:24:32.960
HA: I think the person on microphone 2 was
nodding to that, but you have a question
00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:33.960
there right?
00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:39.489
Mic 2: Yeah, that actually kind of covered
my question. But I just... first of all
00:24:39.489 --> 00:24:46.109
wanted to thank you so much for doing this
talk and also maybe to sort of respond to
00:24:46.109 --> 00:24:49.090
you. I think, one of the things we could
think about is not only women but also
00:24:49.090 --> 00:24:55.269
people particularly in what we still call
"The Global South" who are doing amazing
00:24:55.269 --> 00:24:59.909
work that doesn't get recognized and - you
know - we come to conferences and there's
00:24:59.909 --> 00:25:06.029
oftentimes not a lot of communication
between developers in those places. So I
00:25:06.029 --> 00:25:08.860
think it's very likely that's where our
next Hedy Lamarr could come from.
00:25:08.860 --> 00:25:09.860
AD: Probably.
00:25:09.860 --> 00:25:11.049
Mic 2: So that being said I do have a
00:25:11.049 --> 00:25:16.289
question for you. Which is: What can
everybody here do to try to help avoid
00:25:16.289 --> 00:25:19.559
this? How can we think outside the box and
be reaching out
00:25:19.559 --> 00:25:25.490
to people and maybe uncovering hidden work
and sort of breaking the mold? Because
00:25:25.490 --> 00:25:29.109
that's what happened to her like, she got
stuck in this structure that existed.
00:25:29.109 --> 00:25:34.109
AD: By thinking outside the box I think.
00:25:34.109 --> 00:25:42.940
By supporting - not just girls - from an
early age, you know? To just not look at
00:25:42.940 --> 00:25:50.379
this gender stereotypes. You have a girl
and so "Yeah, she can't be interested in
00:25:50.379 --> 00:25:56.700
technology." You should just be open and
be open to anyone who's asking questions,
00:25:56.700 --> 00:25:59.399
who wants to learn and support that.
00:25:59.399 --> 00:26:04.010
Mic 2: It's really awesome to see so many
little girls here - yeah, thanks to all
00:26:04.010 --> 00:26:06.179
the parents who are doing that.
00:26:06.179 --> 00:26:11.469
applause
00:26:11.469 --> 00:26:13.539
HA: We have one more question online.
NOTE Paragraph
00:26:13.539 --> 00:26:18.959
Q: Yes thank you. Can you elaborate a
little bit on her formal education?
00:26:18.959 --> 00:26:22.200
Was there anything else than Normal School?
00:26:22.200 --> 00:26:34.349
AD: Yes. Well, she was born in 1914.
She went... Typically a girl of her status,
00:26:34.349 --> 00:26:41.309
she was from a well-off family, her dad
was a banker, went to a girl's school,
00:26:41.309 --> 00:26:52.559
which she did. But as far as I've read up,
her dad actually supported her learning.
00:26:52.559 --> 00:27:03.990
He taught her a lot, he took her hiking,
he told her how technical apparatuses work
00:27:03.990 --> 00:27:08.590
and he always supported
her learning a lot.
00:27:08.590 --> 00:27:15.359
But then again, she had the typical formal
education of a girl of her age and status.
00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:22.879
And when she was 16, she was at a
finishing school in Switzerland and she
00:27:22.879 --> 00:27:27.770
ran away, because she wanted to be an
actress. So I guess, it was not that challenging.
NOTE Paragraph
00:27:27.770 --> 00:27:30.932
it was nothing that really
interested her in that school.
00:27:30.932 --> 00:27:34.764
I'm guessing, girls
they learned how to be a good wife.
00:27:34.764 --> 00:27:41.490
How to, you know, know enough so
that you're not too boring for your future husband.
00:27:41.490 --> 00:27:45.570
That was the goal of educating girls.
00:27:45.570 --> 00:27:48.440
HA: We got another question on Mic 1.
00:27:48.440 --> 00:27:51.279
Mic 1: I would like to thank you for this
00:27:51.279 --> 00:28:00.969
talk as well and for the intervention just
on microphone number 2. I would like to
00:28:00.969 --> 00:28:06.529
know what led you to researching Hedy's
life and how did you stumble upon this
00:28:06.529 --> 00:28:10.509
personality? Because as you said yourself
it's hard to, I mean, they're not
00:28:10.509 --> 00:28:16.179
recognized - how how do you find her at
all? Thank you.
00:28:16.179 --> 00:28:19.679
AD: So, how did I find her? I found her
00:28:19.679 --> 00:28:27.029
last year. I had never ever heard of her.
Never seen any of her movies. Somebody on
00:28:27.029 --> 00:28:34.059
Twitter, who I follow, posted a link about
her. Like an article online about her
00:28:34.059 --> 00:28:39.690
inventions. And I read that and I thought
"Wow... That's interesting! Who is that?"
00:28:39.690 --> 00:28:45.309
And then I just started googling her and
in the end I started buying all these
00:28:45.309 --> 00:28:49.820
books and reading and watching her movies
and I'm really happy about that because,
00:28:49.820 --> 00:28:56.350
as I said, I really like her.
So, yeah, Twitter.
00:28:59.660 --> 00:29:02.010
HA: , I think... There's someone at Mic 6. Yeah, I
00:29:02.010 --> 00:29:06.380
wasn't sure because you sat down again...
So please, ask your question now.
00:29:06.380 --> 00:29:10.100
Mic 6: I'm not sure, you said like, the
00:29:10.100 --> 00:29:15.019
name of the talk was "The Woman Behind Wi-
Fi" - can you explain the title and her
00:29:15.019 --> 00:29:18.659
position and what was made out of her
theory?
00:29:18.659 --> 00:29:23.659
AD: Yes, I chose that title, because a lot
00:29:23.659 --> 00:29:32.320
of articles... there's a lot of short
mentions of her online and they often
00:29:32.320 --> 00:29:40.019
stressed that she was one of the pioneers
of these technologies that eventually led
00:29:40.019 --> 00:29:48.081
to today's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. And
there's still always this discussion, when
00:29:48.081 --> 00:29:53.090
somebody says well yeah she invented Wi-Fi
(which I wouldn't say, because she didn't)
00:29:53.090 --> 00:30:04.919
but she was one of many pioneers working
on this technology the past decades and
00:30:04.919 --> 00:30:13.730
there's still always kind of misogynistic
backlash when somebody recognizes her
00:30:13.730 --> 00:30:21.049
achievement. Then people are always "Yeah,
it's so different Wi-Fi and spread-
00:30:21.049 --> 00:30:26.409
spectrum today from what she did and she
didn't really do anything, it's not that
00:30:26.409 --> 00:30:34.259
important!" and that's still today. And I
think it is important, what she did. She
00:30:34.259 --> 00:30:41.549
was ahead of her time. She thought about
something that scientists during that time
00:30:41.549 --> 00:30:51.840
could not grasp. It was possible her
patent was feasible and it's - to answer
NOTE Paragraph
00:30:51.840 --> 00:30:56.809
your question - it's kind of a little
provocative, maybe, the title.
00:30:56.809 --> 00:31:05.499
Intentionally to just make you think about
"What exactly did she do?". Which is not
00:31:05.499 --> 00:31:06.590
that little, I think.
00:31:06.590 --> 00:31:12.419
HA: I think regardless of a provocative
title it was a really amazing talk and we
00:31:12.419 --> 00:31:15.977
would like to thank you one more time, Anja Drephal
00:31:15.977 --> 00:31:21.820
applause
NOTE Paragraph
00:31:21.820 --> 00:31:29.886
music
00:31:29.886 --> 00:31:46.000
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