Video Colorization Diagnostics in Optical Telecommunications

Copyright © 1982 American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Printed in U.S.A. Video Colorization Diagnostics in Optical Telecommunications By H. M. PRESBY and R. CHANG* (Manuscript received October, 1981) A new diagnostic tool is used to study the outputs of light-emitting diodes, lasers, and optical fibers, and to provide quality control of optical fiber preforms. The object is observed with a video camera, and the monochrome signal is processed to synthesize a color display from the different intensity levels. The color representation allows features not previously observable to be readily recognized and characterized. Correlation between separated, but equally bright, regions of a video image is also easily achieved in that they are now rendered in the same color. A calibration procedure allowing quantitative information to be quickly obtained from the display is described. I. INTRODUCTION Video diagnostics is capable of playing an important role in the study and characterization of the components used in optical telecommunications. The term itself refers to obtaining information from a video signal derived by viewing the object, or a property of the object of interest, with a video camera. Prime examples are observing the light output of light-emitting diodes (LEDS) or of fibers. The video image will then consist of a two-dimensional display of the intensity at the plane upon which the camera is focussed. For LEDS, this plane could correspond to the output face of the device so that the near-field * R.