Mortimer Alan Rogoff (May 2, 1921 – August 1, 2008) was an American inventor, businessman, and author as well as an amateur photographer and radio operator.
[3] During World War II, he enlisted in the United States Navy and worked on developing radio communication and aerial navigation systems.
One of the techniques he developed was undetectable by Axis forces because its power was below that of the background noise and its frequency varied in random ways.
This secure transmission was the beginning of spread spectrum technology which would become the basis for GPS and CDMA cellular telephone systems.
Although he was never able to patent the technology because it was a military secret[1][4] he did get some recognition for it almost forty years later when he received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Pioneer Award in 1981.
[5] After leaving the Diebold Group he founded several technology and automation businesses, including his own consulting firm, and Teletext Communications Corporation.
With this company he patented a method for marine navigation that combined radar maps with electronic charts in 1986.
As his friend Giuseppe Carnevali said, “Although nobody could argue against the need for a standard, no one was ready to endorse one; however, nobody was brave enough to oppose it.”[1][7]: 61–62 A Test Bed project on these proposals was conducted by the United States Coast Guard.