Patent ID: 7131771

Claim:
An apparatus for automatic optimization of a splice loss estimator of an optical fiber splicer apparatus, said splice loss estimator being adapted, in a splice loss estimation procedure, to estimate the splice losses (L Ti ) of splices (i) of end portions of optical fibers as produced by said fiber splicer apparatus from at least one respective image taken of the respective end portions of the optical fibers prior to, during, or subsequent to the splicing thereof, said splice loss estimation procedure including the use of a set of splice loss estimation parameters (P j ), comprising a first input line for receiving, from said splice loss estimator, data of a plurality of splices of end portions of optical fibers as produced by said fiber splicer apparatus, wherein said data for each splice (i) include information (C ii ) derived from the at least one image taken of the end portions of the optical fibers constituting that splice, and the estimated splice loss (L Ti ) of that splice; a second input line for receiving a splice loss value (L Mi ) for each of said plurality of splices of end portions of optical fibers as measured by a measurement equipment; means for determining a new set of splice loss estimation parameters from said data and said estimated and measured splice loss values such that said splice loss estimation procedure, using the new set of splice loss estimation parameters, estimates the splice loss of each of said plurality of splices of end portions of optical fibers with a given accuracy; and an output line for outputting said determined new set of splice loss estimation parameters to said splice loss estimator to replace the set of splice loss estimation parameters used in the splice loss estimation procedure of the splice loss estimator for the estimation of the splice losses of any further splices of end portions of optical fibers to be produced by said fiber splicer apparatus.