Optical apparatus

Claim 1

An optical apparatus for receiving an optical image at a first end and for producing an expanded form of the optical image at a second end, comprising: a plurality of optical fibers of uniform cross-section extending from said first end to said second end, each fiber having a core and cladding and an axis in the neighborhood of the second end, each fiber adapted to transmit light from the first end to the second end, the fibers formed into a plurality of rows, the fibers in a given row being held in a uniformly adjacent configuration, the several rows being held in close proximity at the first end and separated by spacers at the second end, all the rows of the fibers together being cut at the second end at a narrow angle to their axes to provide a broad emission surface at the end of each fiber, the surfaces being coplanar with each other to form an expanded image plane, each surface having a center, the widths of the spacers being such as to make the center-to-center distance between the adjacent rows at the second end the same as the distance between the centers of the faces of the adjacent fibers on the same row, so that the image at the second end is an undistorted form of the image at the first end, the surfaces at the second end having a roughened, diffusing texture to disperse light from the second end and providing a non-directional field of view for the expanded image.