Patent ID: 7746454

Claim:
A method of continuously measuring at least one optical property along a length of optical fiber, the method comprising: optically coupling a first end of an optical fiber to a reflector, wherein the reflector is secured to a first rotatable body and a second end of the optical fiber is secured to a second rotatable body; optically coupling the second end of the optical fiber to a light source and a detector, wherein the second end of the optical fiber is optically coupled to the light source via a rotating optical coupler and wherein the light source is capable of passing light into the optical fiber and the detector is capable of detecting light passing out of the optical fiber; propagating at least a portion of the light from the light source through the optical fiber and to the reflector such that at least a portion of the light propagated from the optical fiber to the reflector is reflected back through the optical fiber and at least a portion of the light reflected back through the optical fiber is propagated to and detected by the detector; and measuring the detected light for the at least one optical property as the first rotatable body is rotated and the second rotatable body is rotated such that the optical fiber is unwound from the second rotatable body as it is being wound on the first rotatable body.