The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 07, 2000
Filed:
Apr. 23, 1997
Kazunari Hattori, Yokohama, JP;
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for observing, before and after fusion-splicing of optical fibers such as ribbon fibers each including a plurality of optical fibers in particular, the butting state of the tip portion of each of fiber ribbons in a wide range with a high accuracy. In the observation method in accordance with the present invention, while the optical fibers to be fusion-spliced together are disposed on a predetermined reference surface such that their end faces butt each other, at least a pair of cameras are independently or synchronously moved along a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the optical fibers so as to change the shooting areas of the respective cameras, thereby realizing the collective observation or local observation of the observation area. The observation apparatus in accordance with the present invention comprises a driving system for moving the pair of cameras along a predetermined direction.