fiberscope

A low quality fiberscope observing the inside of an antique clock mechanism. Note how individual fibers are discernable, as each fiber only relays one general color.

A fiberscope is a flexible fiber optic bundle with an eyepiece at one end, and a lens at the other. It is used for inspection work, often to examine small components in tightly packed equipment, when the inspector cannot easily access the part requiring inspection.

The lens is often a wide-angle lens, and the eyepiece is occasionally instead connected to a camera. Some fiberscopes use an additional fiber to carry light from an external source to illuminate the material being inspected, for clearer viewing.

All fiberscopes introduce a certain amount of image distortion; much of this is similar to the distortion of modern night vision equipment.
Quartz fiberscopes can reach lengths of up to about 90 m (300 ft)^[1]

Fiberscopes are used in medicine, machining, computer repair, espionage, locksmithing, safecracking, and computer forensics, among many other uses.

In popular media

• Perhaps one of the first exposures the public had to the fiberscope's use in counter-terrorism was the 1982 film Who Dares Wins, about the SAS.
• Nicknamed the "snake cam", it is an essential tool in the Tom Clancy video game Rainbow Six Vegas and the entire Splinter Cell series.

See also

• Borescope
• Endoscope

References

1. ^ quartz fiberscope info from NDT magazine

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