Fiber optic shape sensing (FOSS) is an emerging technology which uses optical fibers for real-time 3-dimensional (3D) sensing of the shape of objects in space. It has many advantages with respect to competing technologies. These include ease of installation, flexibility and compactness, immunity to electromagnetic interference, low weight, compatibility with harsh environments, compatibility with in-vivo applications, corrosion resistance, electrically-passive operation of the sensing element and more. Most current fiber-optic shape sensing solutions are based on specialty fibers which are costly and hard to obtain. Recently we have been able to demonstrate sensing of the shape of a conventional, of the shelf, multimode fiber via processing the speckles formed by a beam of light which made a roundtrip in the fiber. The fiber was deployed on 3 motorized stages and our techniques was used to estimate the movement of the stages. Although this preliminary work demonstrated sensing of limited shape variations only, it showed the potential of our method and inspired further research milestones. In particular, we intend to generalize the method and collect light backscattered along the entire length of the fiber in order to improve the accuracy of the method.

Applications:
1. Endoscopy systems – Retrieve the position and coordinates of the end facet of the fiber, to give its location when it is used as a stand-alone or as part of an endoscope. 
2. Imaging Devices – Realize an imaging device based on a flexible multi-mode fiber through which visual data can be transferred regardless of the shape of the fiber.

Patent:
SHAPE SENSING OF MULTIMODE OPTICAL FIBERS, SHAPE SENSING OF MULTIMODE OPTICAL FIBERS