FIBRESCOPE

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