Patent Document ID: 8596888
Application ID: 12159738
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of finding an alignment position of an object plane of an optical system, the alignment position suited for capturing pictures along an optical axis of the optical system, when aligning two optical fiber ends with each other, the optical system having an object plane, the method comprising the steps of: setting the object plane in an initial position, capturing, using the optical system, a picture comprising an image of one of the two optical fiber ends, evaluating said image in the captured picture, displacing, based on the evaluating, the object plane from the initial position along the optical axis to find an alignment position for said one of the two optical fiber ends in which alignment position of the object plane, in a picture captured by the optical system for the alignment position and in the image of said one of the two optical fiber ends, a local contrast value for the image area of the core of said one of the two optical fiber ends, in particular the difference between the brightness, the local contrast value in particular being the maximum brightness, of the image area of the core of said one of the two optical fiber ends and the brightness, in particular the maximum brightness, of longitudinal, relatively bright, separate image areas adjacent to the image of the core of said one of the two optical fiber ends in said image, has a maximum value or deviates from a maximum value by at most a predetermined value, wherein the displacing further comprises determining a total contrast value from a determined transverse intensity distribution, in particular determining the total contrast value as a height of a peak structure in the determined transverse intensity distribution, and the total contrast value is determined as a relative contrast value being the difference between the height of the central peak structure, in particular the maximum height or average height, of the central peak structure, and surrounding regions in the determined transverse intensity distribution.