Patent ID: 7061522

Claim:
An optical fiber fusion-splicer in which optical fibers to be fusion-spliced are photo-taken by at least two television cameras from plural directions, and image data of the optical fibers is captured into an image processing apparatus and processed, whereby each of operation steps ranging from positioning of optical axes and end faces of optical fibers to fusion-splicing is automatically carried out, wherein, said image processing apparatus comprises an image capturing means capable of capturing image data from the at least two television cameras by at least one input processing circuit and capable of capturing and image-processing only desired image data from each of said at least two television cameras; the capturing modes of said image capturing means provided with said at least one input processing circuit include three capturing modes consisting of: a capturing mode in which the image data can be captured from said at least two television cameras from frame to frame and the image data from said at least two television cameras can be captured by successively switching said at least two television cameras from frame to frame, a capturing mode in which the image data can be captured from said at least two television cameras from field to field and the image data from said at least two television cameras can be captured by successively switching said at least two television cameras from field to field, and a capturing mode in which the image data can be captured from said at least two television cameras from pixel to pixel and the image data from said at least two television cameras can be captured by successively switching said at least two television cameras from pixel to pixel, and at least two of said three capturing modes can be switched according to each step of fusion operation to capture the image data, the image captured by the selected capturing modes is displayed on a television monitor for observation, positioning members on which optical fibers are set are driven by a driving device on the basis of the captured image data so that positioning of optical axes and end faces of the optical fibers is made, and each of the operation steps up to fusion-splicing of the optical fibers by discharging of electrode rods is automatically carried out.