Patent ID: 8045143
Filing Date: 2011-10-25
Classification: G01M

Abstract:
1. An apparatus to measure optical characteristics of an optical medium, comprising: an optical source to generate an optical square wave for transmission into the optical medium; an optical receiver to receive a reflected optical waveform from the optical medium caused by a portion of the optical square wave being reflected by any anomaly in the optical medium and wherein the optical receiver converts the reflected optical waveform to a reflected electrical waveform; a module to combine the reflected electrical waveform with a reference waveform to form a resulting waveform, wherein the reference waveform corresponds substantially to the optical square wave and is delayed a predetermined time duration; a controller that processes the resulting waveform to detect any anomaly and a location of the anomaly in the optical medium based on an amplitude of the resulting waveform at a sample delay position in the resulting waveform, wherein the controller comprises a microprocessor that generates a mathematical representation of the resulting waveform from sampling the resulting waveform, and wherein the mathematical representation comprises the resulting waveform represented in a matrix form comprising: