Shimadzu Corporation

Japan Agency for Marine-earth Science and Technolog

Keiko Sato

Naoki Nishimura

Takao Sawa

An optical communication deviceis provided with: a plurality of light-receiving elementseach configured to receive light and output a light detection signal; a plurality of optical fibersprovided to correspond to the plurality of light-receiving elements, respectively, the plurality of optical fibers each being configured to guide the light to the corresponding light-receiving element; a plurality of amplifiersprovided to correspond to the plurality of light-receiving elements, respectively, the plurality of amplifiers each being configured to generate optical communication information by performing signal processing on the light detection signal; a light intensity information collection unitconfigured to collect intensity of the light received by each of the plurality of optical fibersas light intensity information; an optical fiber identification unitconfigured to identify the optical fiberthat is receiving relatively strong light out of the plurality of optical fibers, based on the light intensity information La to Le collected by the light intensity information collection unit; and a switch controllerconfigured to control to turn on the amplifier, the amplifierbeing provided to correspond to the optical fiberidentified by the optical fiber identification unit

Optical communication device

The present invention relates to a fiber branch structure for spatial optical communication for transmitting information by emitting communication light. The fiber branch structure is provided with: a light emitter configured to emit communication light; a light emission controller configured to control the light emitter; an optical fiber configured to transmit the light emitted from the light emitter; a distributor configured to distribute the light, the distributer being optically coupled to an output terminal of the optical fiber; and an optical fiber group optically coupled to a plurality of output terminals of the distributor. According to the present invention, a communication area can be established without blind spots. That is, the fiber branch structure for spatial optical communication according to the present invention includes an optical fiber group optically coupled to a plurality of output terminals of the distributor. A communication area can be established more assuredly by such an optical fiber group, which prevents the optical communication from being interrupted.

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Keiko Sato