Designers Use Fiber Optic Technology

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Designers Use Fiber Optic Technology

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Every new invention will first be the property of a selected few. This can be either rich people wanting the very best of fanatics that are interested in the technology so that they can’t go on if they don’t have the latest and greatest. It was like that when the first personal computers were invented. It was bigger, more noisy and a lot more expensive than a typewriter but as more and more people bought it became cheaper (because of mass production) and better.

This is exactly what has happened to fiber optic technology. At first it was used in laboratories among scientists and engineers or in larger production companies that had the finances and the capacity. Then, over a period of ten to fifteen years the technology has evolved so that now you will see fiber optic light in things as swimming pools and toys for children. It is all around us and we haven’t seen the end of it yet.

How Did Fiber Optic Technology Get To That Point?
Most people might not know this but it is true for this technology as well as for many others. Because of things that were not meant to happen (some would call them errors) things that would be hard to live without today have been invented. In the same way has material “defects” caused inventions to be known by the public and this is actually the case with the fiber optic technology.

The first thing you must understand is that the main goal of fiber optics is the ability to transmit digital data over great distances. The digital data is made up of intermittent on and off bursts which in result makes is very fragile. The more switching (on and off bursts) a data line can handle the better the quality because the more pure will the transmission of data become.

Unfortunately the scientists can’t just look at a fiber optic string to see the quality of it and therefore they are going to be testing each and every one of the heavily. In order to only use the very best quality for data transmission a series of many tests are being performed and the final result will be bundled into what we know as a fiber optic cable. So if you have fiber optic data transmission either at work or at home you now know that this is something that is top of the notch.

But as with all tests some fail to pass them and in this case it is a substantial amount of fibers that don’t have the required quality and is therefore considered waste material. But instead of just throwing these fibers out they still have the capability to transmit light waves and this can be useful in many different areas.

Using Waste as Raw Material
Some of the very first people that found out that the low quality fibers could actually be used for other things were the special effects makers of the Hollywood movies. So based on the principles of fiber optic technology they know had a tool that would solve some of their major problems which was heat. Normal lighting produces enormous amount of heat and the heat will melt the fragile plastics used in the effects industry. Now they had light that didn’t produced the heat that would melt the plastics and as a bonus created a lighting effect that was even more real than what they were use to.

Not too long ago there was a new phenomenon called the “laser pen”. This pen could be used as a pointer when giving presentations but it quickly became common to have a pen that you could play with as soon as the lights went out. Especially cinemas, concerts and fashion shows saw the effect of the fiber optic technology (good and bad).

Then there was the little fiber optic bonsai tree that ever teenager would want in their room and just recently we have seen fiber optics being used in children’s toys and even in home lighting applications because of the high quality of light and the low electricity cost.

I’m sure that we have not seen half of it yet and there is no doubt that fiber optic technology will have made a great impact on our lives when we look back 10 years from now.